UC-NRLF 


B 
® 


\ 


educational 


EDITED  BY  HENRY  SUZZALLO 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNIVERSITY    OF   WASHINGTON 
SEATTLE,    WASHINGTON 


THE  VOCATIONAL 
GUIDANCE  OF  YOUTH 

BY 
MEYER  BLOOMFIELD 

DIRECTOR  OF  THE  VOCATION  BUREAU  OF  BOSTON 

LECTURER  ON  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE,  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 

SUMMER  SCHOOL 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  PAUL  H.  HAN  US 


HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

BOSTON      NEW  YORK      CHICAGO      SAN  FRANCISCO 

$be  ftiuewi&c  ptw,  Cambridge 


COPYRIGHT,   IQII,   BY  MEYER  BLOOMFIELD 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


REPLACING 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


To 

MRS.  PAULINE  AGASSIZ  SHAW 

WISE  AND  GENEROUS  FRIEND  OF  YOUTH 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION vii 

I.  THE  CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK  AND  ITS 

DIFFICULTIES i 

II.  VOCATIONAL   CHAOS   AND   SOME   OF   ITS 

CONSEQUENCES 12 

III.  BEGINNINGS  IN  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  .     25 

IV.  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE   IN   THE  PUBLIC 

SCHOOLS 72 

V.  THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR    ....    86 

VI.   SOME   CAUTIONS   IN   VOCATIONAL  GUID- 
ANCE     101 

•    VII.   SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  GAINS  THROUGH 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 109 

REFERENCES 117 

OUTLINE 121 


INTRODUCTION 

THREE  of  the  important  tendencies  in  the 
educational  activities  of  to-day  are  everywhere 
engaging  the  serious  attention  of  thoughtful 
people  within  and  without  the  teaching  profes- 
sion. These  tendencies  are  really  only  different 
phases  of  one  comprehensive  movement  for  ap- 
proximating more  closely  our  democratic  ideal 
of  individual  welfare  and  social  progress.  These 
tendencies  are  the  safeguarding  and  promotion 
of  bodily  health  and  vigor  by  an  important  ex- 
tension of  the  work  of  departments  of  school 
hygiene  and  physical  training  in  our  schools; 
the  progressive  establishment  of  public  voca- 
tional schools  of  elementary  and  secondary  grade, 
i.  e.,  of  vocational  schools  other  than  profes- 
sional schools,  for  increasing  the  efficiency  of 
all  who  must  work  for  wages ;  and  a  wide- 
spread effort  to  make  the  non-vocational  schools 
we  already  have,  of  every  grade  and  kind,  more 
vital  —  to  make  the  pupil's  school  life  so  signifi- 
vii 


INTRODUCTION 

cant  a  part  of  his  whole  life  that  it  shall  be  and 
remain  a  permanent  guiding  force,  no  matter  at 
what  point  his  school  life  must  close. 

The  increased  attention  to  bodily  health  and 
strength  in  school  is  the  natural  concomitant  of 
the  awakened  public  interest  in  physical  health 
and  strength,  not  merely  for  our  physical  wel- 
fare but  also  as  one  of  our  most  important  social 
resources.  Quite  apart  from  the  misery  ill-health 
orphysical  weakness  usually  .entails,  it  is  clear 
that  economic  efficiency  depends  on  it.  The 
relation  of  a  youth's  physical  health  and  vigor 
to  success  and  satisfaction  in  his  vocation  is 
clear.  If,  possessing  physical  inaptitude  or  weak- 
ness, he  enters  a  pursuit  that  is  not  adapted 
to  him,  only  moderate  usefulness  and  perhaps 
early  incapacity  must  be  his  fate.  Neither  he 
nor  society  can  afford  to  take  such  a  risk. 
Hence  the  necessity  of  a  close  relation  and 
ultimate  cooperation  between  all  the  agencies 
for  promoting  the  public  health  and  vocational 
guidance. 

The  establishment  of  schools  at  public  expense 
for  the  training  of  workers  in  our  industries,  on 
viii 


INTRODUCTION 

our  farms,  and  in  commerce  is  making  decided 
progress.  Throughout  the  country  such  schools 
are  discussed  or  already  actually  established, 
with  more  to  follow.  Schools  of  commerce,  of 
industry,  of  agriculture,  whether  day  schools, 
part-time  schools,  day  and  evening  continuation 
schools,  are  a  response  to  the  demand  for  in- 
creasing economic  efficiency,  without  which  in- 
dividual welfare  and  social  progress  are  impossi- 
ble. The  opportunities  for  vocational  training 
thus  afforded  and  the  growing  demand  for  more 
opportunities  obviously  point  to  the  necessity  of 
wise  choice  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  to 
profit  by  them,  and  hence  the  close  relation 
between  vocational  guidance  and  vocational 
training. 

The  movement  for  vocational  education  has 
directed  attention  to  the  aims  and  work  of  the 
existing  public  schools  with  a  view  to  appraising 
the  social  significance  of  that  work,  and  partic- 
ularly its  significance  with  respect  to  the  voca- 
tions toward  which  they  point  their  pupils,  and 
what  vocational  preparation  they  should  offer. 
Such  an  examination  of  the  aims  and  work  of  the 
ix 


INTRODUCTION 

public  schools  is  by  no  means  new,  it  is  in  fact 
perennial;  but  the  recent  and  contemporary 
interest  in  vocational  education  has  reenforced 
it.  Hence  a  conspicuous  tendency  in  educa- 
tional activity  to-day  is  the  effort  to  make  the 
school  a  more  effective  factor  in  shaping  the 
pupil's  career.  While  enabling  him  to  appre- 
ciate the  spiritual  and  institutional  (political) 
resources  and  problems  of  our  age,  it  shall  also 
render  him  responsive  to  our  economic  resources 
and  problems,  and  in  particular  it  shall  bring 
home  to  him  the  importance  and  the  dignity  of 
work  of  all  kinds  as  the  foundation  of  all  indi- 
vidual and  social  welfare. 

It  is  clear  that  with  this  tendency  well  estab- 
lished in  the  schools  the  question  of  vocational 
guidance  is  a  pressing  question.  Where  this  ten- 
dency is  not  yet  marked,  vocational  guidance  is 
even  more  vital,  for  there  the  pupil  is  likely  to 
be  quite  helpless  when  he  makes  the  momentous 
transition  from  school  to  work.  This  transition 
cannot  be  safe  unless  the  choice  of  the  pupil's 
life  career  is  deliberate.  Even  then  mistakes 
will  be  made,  but  we  may  expect  they  will  be 


INTRODUCTION 

insignificant  in  number  and  importance  as  com- 
pared with  the  mistakes  of  random  choice  or 
mere  "  hunting  a  job." 

It  is  clear  that  much  preparation  is  needed  by 
those  on  whom  the  duty  of  vocational  guidance 
may  fall.  Information  must  be  had  of  the  young 
people  themselves,  their  physical  condition,  their 
capacity,  their  ambitions,  the  opportunities  and 
circumstances  of  their  lives ;  similarly,  informa- 
tion is  needed  about  occupations,  their  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  in  view  of  the  natural 
and  acquired  equipment  for  them  possessed  by 
their  prospective  workers ;  the  kind  of  prepara- 
tion required  for  them,  and  the  extent  and  qual- 
ity of  the  available  preparation  for  a  progressive 
career  in  them,  and  what  success  in  them  means. 
To  gather  this  information  and  make  it  available 
for  use  will  require  time  and  effort.  And  to  give 
satisfactory  guidance  by  properly  trained  persons 
to  the  great  body  of  young  people  whose  life 
work  is  now  almost  inevitably  determined  by 
chance,  will  require  an  army  of  devoted  workers. 

It  is  clear,  also,  that  one  important  duty  of 
the  advisers  of  youth  is  to  bring  home  to  all  who 
xi 


INTRODUCTION 

can  be  brought  to  see  it  the  enormous  value  of 
more  education  for  every  capable  pupil,  no  mat- 
ter when  he  leaves  school,  —  and  no  matter 
whether  the  chief  purpose  of  the  school  he  at- 
tends is  to  give  general  education  or  to  prepare 
him  for  a  particular  calling.  One  valuable  result 
of  satisfactory  vocational  guidance  ought  to  be, 
therefore,  to  lengthen  the  period  of  education 
for  all  but  the  incurably  dull  or  the  permanently 
unambitious. 

Mr.  Bloomfield's  work  has  long  required  him 
to  study  the  problems  of  vocational  guidance, 
and  as  Director  of  the  recently  organized  Voca- 
tion Bureau  of  Boston  he  is  necessarily  brought 
face  to  face  with  those  problems  in  all  their 
variety  and  complexity.  The  insight  he  has 
gained  and  the  suggestions  based  on  it  are  made 
available  in  the  present  monograph  to  teachers, 
parents,  and  the  general  public.  He  has  made 
an  important  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the 
problems  of  vocational  guidance.  The  vital  need 
of  such  guidance  is  clearly  set  forth,  and  the 
encouraging  beginnings  of  organized  effort  to 
secure  preparation  for  discharging  satisfactorily 
xii 


INTRODUCTION 

the  duty  of  vocational  guidance  are  described. 
It  is  clearly  shown,  also,  that  vocational  guid- 
ance does  not  mean  helping  boys  and  girls  to 
find  work,  but  to  find  the  kind  of  work  they  are 
best  fitted  by  nature  and  training  to  do  well. 
It  does  not  mean  prescribing  a  vocation.  It  does 
mean  bringing  to  bear  on  the  choice  of  a  voca- 
tion organized  information  and  organized  com- 
mon sense. 

PAUL  H.  HANUS, 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY. 


THE  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 
OF  YOUTH 


THE  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 
OF  YOUTH 


THE  CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK  AND  ITS 
DIFFICULTIES 

"  HE  therefore  sometimes  took  me  to  walk  with 
him,"  writes  Benjamin  Franklin  of  his  father, 
"and  see  joiners,  bricklayers,  turners,  braziers, 
etc.,  at  their  work,  that  he  might  observe  my 
inclination,  and  endeavor  to  fix  it  on  some  trade 
or  other  on  land." 

The  busy  age  we  live  in  does  not  seem  so  fa- 
vorable for  the  kindly  offices  of  youth's  natural 
advisers.  While  many  a  parent,  teacher,  or  friend 
spends  energy  and  sympathy  to  give  some  girl  or 
boy  vocational  suggestion  and  help,  the  fact  is 
clear  enough  that  a  vast  majority  of  the  young 
people  in  our  land  enter  upon  their  careers  as 
breadwinners  in  the  trades  and  professions  un- 
guided  and  uninformed.  Chance  is  usually  given 
I 


.  ...   ,.    VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

•  th£  -upper  hand  to  make  or  mar  the  critical  period 
of  working  life. 

At  no  other  time  in  history  have  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  people  been  turned  out  to  earn 
their  living  on  so  large  a  scale,  or  into  so  complex 
a  social  order.  Never  has  there  been  so  great  a 
need  as  now  for  intelligent  cooperation  with  the 
novitiates  in  the  vocational  life. 

Young  Franklin  on  a  brief  visit  to  the  shop  or 
foundry  could  probably  have  seen  a  whole  trade 
in  process.  To-day  this  could  scarcely  be.  Mi- 
nute division  of  labor,  specialization  to  a  degree 
that  leaves  the  average  worker  in  ignorance  of 
the  steps  which  go  before  or  follow  his  own  par- 
tial operations,  do  not  encourage  the  same  per- 
sonal view  of  industry.  Commerce  and  the  liberal 
professions  are  hardly  less  detailed,  and  hardly 
less  in  the  hands  of  specialists.  Spinning,  weav- 
ing, and  the  making  of  a  coat,  the  manufacture  of 
nails,  watches,  and  shoes  involve  scores  of  opera- 
tions. Likewise  the  management  of  a  store,  an 
office,  or  a  factory  calls  for  qualities  peculiar  to  a 
highly  developed  age  of  applied  science.  A  new 
profession  has  arisen  in  the  efficiency  engineer, 

2 


CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK 

whose  business  it  is  to  study  the  costly  results 
of  overlooked  waste  and  extravagance  in  our 
large-scale  production  and  distribution  of  goods. 
Big  establishments  are  working  out  personal  data 
sheets  in  order  to  measure  scientifically  the  value 
of  their  employees.  One  specialty  store  in  Boston 
has  developed  a  system  of  personal  records  which 
leaves  little  to  guess-work  in  the  employment  and 
promotion  of  its  eight  hundred  or  more  people. 
We  are  indeed  living  in  the  midst  of  a  restless 
period,  impatient  with  crudeness,  and  too  preoc- 
cupied to  pause  over  the  stumblings  and  grop- 
ings  of  its  bewildered  youth.  Into  this  arena  of 
tense  effort,  the  schools  of  our  country  send  out 
their  annual  thousands.  We  somehow  trust  that 
the  tide  of  opportunity  may  carry  them  to  some 
vocational  destination.  Only  the  relatively  few 
who  reach  the  higher  training  institutions  can 
be  said  to  have  their  problems  at  least  tempo- 
rarily solved  during  the  critical  period  of  adoles- 
cence. What  becomes  of  that  young  multitude 
sent  out  to  cope  with  the  new  conditions  of  self- 
support  ?  Whose  business  is  it  to  follow  up  the 
results  of  this  transition  from  school  to  work  ? 
3 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

Whose  business  is  it  to  audit  our  social  accounts, 
and  discover  how  far  our  costly  enterprises  in 
education,  the  pain,  the  thought,  the  skill  and 
the  sacrifice  we  put  forth  with  the  growing  gen- 
eration, are  well  or  ill  invested  in  the  field  of  oc- 
cupation ?  These  are  vital  questions,  and  perhaps 
the  most  vital  is  how  far  the  work  our  children 
turn  to  is  the  result  of  choice,  accident,  or  ne- 
cessity. The  higher  training  schools  are  as  pro- 
foundly concerned  in  this  problem  as  are  the 
elementary  schools.  The  well-to-do  are  no  less 
affected  than  the  poor.  Until  society  faces  the 
question  of  the  life  careers  of  its  youth,  the  pre- 
sent vocational  anarchy  will  continue  to  beset  the 
young  work-seekers.  Wasting  their  golden  youth, 
they  discover  too  late  how  much  a  helpful  sug- 
gestion at  the  critical  moment  might  have  shaped 
their  destinies.  They  are  unhappy  and  discour- 
aged, and  hence  the  pitiful  letters  written  to 
those  who  care  about  these  problems,  from  men 
and  women  who  realize  too  late  the  reason  for 
their  futility  as  workers. 

Society  has  been  slow  to  recognize  the  need 
of  cooperating  with  its  future  workers  in  the 
4 


CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK 

choice  of  their  careers.  It  has  not  realized  that 
successful  choice  of  life-work  is  impossible  to  the 
unadvised  and  the  unprepared.  Common  sense 
tells  us  that  intelligent  selection  of  life-work  is 
the  result  of  intelligent  preparation.  We  cannot 
expect  youth  to  find  itself  vocationally  without 
furnishing  it  with  the  raw  material  for  thought- 
ful selection.  In  other  words,  there  can  be  no 
one  detached  day  or  moment  for  choosing,  but 
rather  all  one's  training  is  tested  by  the  culmi- 
nating process  of  deciding  on  a  vocation. 

Now  real  selection  is  impossible  where  the 
range  of  occupation  is  a  dark  continent.  Choice, 
like  play,  is  usually  the  product  of  many  influ- 
ences, not  the  least  of  which  are  suggestion  and 
imitation.  The  children  of  a  neglected  neigh- 
borhood mimic  the  drunken  woman  arrested  by 
the  policeman,  while  those  of  the  well  supervised 
city  playground  have  opened  to  them  a  world 
of  wholesome  activities.  A  city  kindergarten 
teacher  spending  her  vacation  in  a  Nova  Scotia 
fishing  hamlet  gathered  about  her  one  day  a 
group  of  the  fishermen's  children.  She  tried 
them  at  the  game  of  "Trades."  They  could  go 
5 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

through  the  motions  only  of  net-making,  hauling 
in  of  fish,  and  the  simple  household  crafts  of  spin- 
ning, carding,  and  weaving  which  they  saw  their 
mothers  and  grandmothers  engage  in.  The  mo- 
tions of  the  urban  workers,  like  the  plumber, 
engineer,  the  merchant,  and  the  newsboy  were 
quite  meaningless  to  these  children. 

The  young  people  of  a  crowded  district  imitate 
the  ambulance  driver,  the  fireman,  the  street- 
cleaner  and  the  actor  of  cheap  melodrama ;  but 
when  older,  and  the  sense  of  adventure  is  less 
keen  in  their  impulse  for  vocational  expression, 
one  finds  how  much  local  social  ambitions  count. 
The  neighborhood  doctor  who  drives  about  in  a 
shiny  buggy,  or  perhaps  in  a  motor  car  with  con- 
spicuous red-cross  devices;  the  lawyer  and  his 
nonchalance  in  the  dread  police  court  of  the  dis- 
trict ;  the  dentist  with  his  gilt  signs  across  a 
private  dwelling  in  the  tenement  district,  carry- 
ing proudly  the  title  of  doctor;  and  the  druggist 
- — that  master  of  confections  and  magic  drugs  — 
these  weigh  heavily  in  the  family  judgment  at  the 
infrequent  vocational  conferences  of  the  tene- 
ment home.  To  be  sure,  there  is  the  school- 
6 


CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK 

teacher,  the  civil  engineer,  and  the  man  on  the 
road,  whose  rise  from  the  unfavorable  environ- 
ment carries  vocational  suggestion  to  the  neigh- 
borhood, but  this  is  feeble  compared  to  the  potent 
example  of  local  social  esteem  which  the  above- 
mentioned  personages  carry. 

It  is  in  our  centres  of  population,  in  the  apart- 
ment and  tenement  house  districts,  that  the 
masses  of  children  are  to  be  found.  Here  is  the 
most  need  for  unfolding  the  panorama  of  occu- 
pations to  the  quick  intelligences  of  the  young 
people.  Parents  here  are  busy  day  and  night,  and 
family  relationships  often  suffer.  The  teachers 
preside  over  large  classes,  and  these  neighbor- 
hoods are  filled  with  a  crowd  of  the  unskilled,  the 
poorly  paid,  the  unemployed,  and  the  misem- 
ployed. It  is  a  place  of  high  lights  and  deep 
shadows ;  and  for  thousands  of  children,  life  opens 
unpromisingly.  Democracy  probably  still  holds 
out  its  opportunities  to  the  child  that  can  avail 
himself  of  them.  But  the  gifted  as  well  as  the 
ungifted  live  here  equally  doomed  to  undevelop- 
ing  and  cheaply  paid  labor. 

Marshall  the  economist  has  told  us  how  large 
7 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

a  proportion  of  genius  is  lost  to  society  because  it 
is  born  among  the  children  of  the  poor,  where  it 
perishes  for  want  of  opportunity.  We  have  no 
plan  for  conserving  the  talents  of  the  poor ;  no 
plan  for  conserving  the  resources  of  the  immi- 
grant. Our  schools  are  fettered  by  routine.  Any 
social  experimentation  calculated  to  call  forth 
the  gifts  of  the  new  peoples  is  left  to  private 
philanthropy.  A  large  proportion  of  the  children 
in  our  cities  who  leave  school  for  work  as  soon 
as  the  law  allows  are  foreign  born  or  the  children 
of  foreign  born.  Surely  the  hard-driven  parent 
stuggling  for  a  foothold  in  an  alien  country  must 
fail  as  a  vocational  adviser  to  his  children.  The 
truth  is  that  parents  do  not  tell  their  children 
what  they  should  be,  but  the  children  tell  them 
what  they  are  going  to  be. 

Who  shall  help  such  children  ?  To  whom  shall 
they  turn  for  counsel  and  information  about  the 
vocations  ?  The  gathering  of  helpful  occupational 
information  involves  painstaking  labor  and  large 
resources.  Such  information  calls  for  the  corre- 
lation of  a  variety  of  facts  from  many  and  often 
unfamiliar  sources.  An  illustration  of  the  kind 
8 


CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK 

of  service  needed  is  to  be  found  in  the  use  made 
by  one  vocational  adviser  of  a  report  on  tuber- 
culosis in  the  various  industries,  issued  by  the 
Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health.  The  re- 
port disclosed  the  fact  that  granite-cutting  was 
among  the  most  dangerous  occupations.  From 
his  experience  as  a  social  worker,  this  adviser 
knew  that  many  Italians  are  employed  in  quar- 
ries and  stone-yards,  and  that  very  many  Italians 
return  to  their  own  country  to  die  of  the  white 
plague.  He  took  pains,  therefore,  to  point  out 
wherever  he  could,  particularly  to  teachers,  that 
when  an  Italian  boy  intended  to  work  at  stone- 
cutting,  the  parent  should  see  to  it  that  a  medi- 
cal examination  gave  the  boy  a  pulmonary  clean 
bill ;  for  the  weak-lunged  Italian  boy  who  took 
up  stone-cutting  would  probably  be  committing 
suicide. 

Another  illustration  of  vocational  help  has 
been  the  work  of  a  young  woman  who  some  years 
ago  was  in  charge  of  a  small  library  in  a  social 
settlement  on  the  East  Side  of  New  York.  Her 
idea  of  circulating  books  was  to  work  out  with 
each  boy  and  girl  the  kind  of  book  that  would 
9 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

best  minister  to  his  or  her  needs.  And  those 
needs  were  studied  with  infinite  care.  Her  quiet 
ministrations  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
ambitious  and  idealistic  youth  of  her  neighbor- 
hood vocations  that  were  unknown  to  them  be- 
fore. Forestry,  social  research,  library  science, 
neighborhood  work,  social  and  civic  service  were 
the  careers  opened  to  young  boys  and  girls  in 
touch  with  the  library  and  the  other  influences 
which  in  time  clustered  about  that  institution. 
And  those  careers  are  followed  to-day  with  no 
little  distinction  by  the  graduates  of  that  vitaliz- 
ing influence. 

The  time  has  gone  by  for  a  laissez-faire  atti- 
tude toward  this  most  fundamental  of  conserva- 
tion needs.  The  success  achieved  by  those  who 
have  helped  to  shape  a  youth's  destiny  is  not 
fully  explained  by  pointing  to  gifts  of  insight  and 
patience  of  the  adviser,  or  to  the  exceptional 
qualities  of  the  boys  and  girls  who  could  benefit 
by  an  interest  in  their  welfare.  To  content  one's 
self  with  such  explanations  is  to  doom  the  mass 
of  our  children  to  barren  lives,  a  loss  to  them- 
selves and  to  the  community.  After  all,  it  is  with 
10 


CHOICE  OF  A  LIFE-WORK 

the  usual  and  not  with  the  exceptional  individual 
that  the  community  must  mainly  concern  itself, 
and  results  that  are  worth  while  have  attended 
even  modest  efforts  at  vocational  guidance  of  a 
large  group,  as  of  a  school,  a  club,  or  like  organi- 
zation. The  time  for  doing  something  to  help 
young  people  choose  their  life-work  is  at  hand. 
Only  a  backward  social  conscience  will  palliate  a 
lack  of  energy  to  attempt  a  remedy,  however  ten- 
tative, for  the  present  chaos  in  the  transition  from 


schooling  to  self-support. 


II 


VOCATIONAL  CHAOS  AND  SOME  OF  ITS 
CONSEQUENCES 

EVIDENCE  of  what  the  let-alone  policy  is  cost- 
ing  society  may  be  found  on  every  hand.  A  talk 
with  any  intelligent  employer  or  with  almost  any 
parent,  teacher,  or  student  of  social  conditions 
reveals  an  astonishing  abundance  of  testimony. 
Indeed,  the  yield  of  information  is  only  equaled 
by  the  extensive  failure  to  do  something  about 
it.  Little  argument  is  needed  to  make  out  a  case 
in  behalf  of  a  plan  for  the  vocational  guidance  of 
youth  ;  and  yet,  on  the  whole,  no  problem  has 
elicited  so  little  effort  to  meet  it  in  the  con- 
structive way  which  modern  methods  of  dealing 
with  social  problems  suggest. 

Perhaps  the  most  impressive  body  of  facts 
bearing  on  the  consequences  of  our  failure  to 
face  the  vocational  interests  of  youth  is  to  be 
found  in  the  report  issued  in  England  a  year  ago 
by  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  and 

12 


CHAOS  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

Relief  of  Distress.  Nothing  has  more  deeply  im- 
pressed that  Commission  in  the  course  of  its  ex- 
haustive investigation  than  the  wanton  pauper- 
ization of  England's  energetic  youth. 

In  the  Majority  Report,  the  Commissioners 
lay  stress  on  the  great  prominence  given  to  boy 
labor  not  only  in  the  evidence  which  came  before 
them,  but  also  in  the  various  reports  of  the  special 
investigators;  and  the  conviction  is  expressed 
that  this  is  perhaps  the  most  serious  of  the  phe- 
nomena which  they  have  encountered  in  their 
study  of  unemployment.  Well-trained  boys  find 
it  difficult  enough  to  secure  a  foothold  in  the 
skilled  trades ;  but  if  in  addition  to  this  there  are 
the  temptations  to  crowd  the  occupations  which 
promise  no  skill,  promise  no  outlook,  no  future, 
the  fact  is  clear  that  such  conditions  in  the 
British  Empire  are  making  directly  for  unem- 
ployment in  the  future. 

The  Minority  Report  is  even  more  emphatic. 
It  points  out  the  effects  of  entering  "  blind-alley  " 
occupations,  and  states  that  perpetual  recruit- 
ment of  the  unemployable  by  tens  of  thousands 
of  boys  is  perhaps  the  gravest  of  all  the  grave 
13 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

facts  which  the  Commissioners  laid  bare.  "  We 
cannot  believe/'  the  Commissioners  say,  "that 
the  nation  can  long  persist  in  ignoring  the  fact 
that  the  unemployed,  and  particularly  the  under- 
employed and  unemployable  are  thus  being  daily 
created  under  our  eyes  out  of  bright  young  lives, 
capable  of  better  things,  for  whose  training  we 
make  no  provision.  It  is,  unfortunately,  only  too 
clear  that  the  mass  of  unemployment  is  continu- 
ally being  recruited  by  a  stream  of  young  men 
from  industries  which  rely  upon  unskilled  boy 
labor,  and  turn  it  adrift  at  manhood  without 
any  general  or  special  industrial  qualification, 
and  that  it  will  never  be  diminished  till  this 
stream  is  arrested." 

Prof.  Michael  E.  Sadler,  in  commenting  on  the 
evidence  before  the  Royal  Commission,  states 
that  boys  and  girls  are  tempted  by  the  ease,  the 
fairly  good  wages,  and  the  sense  of  independence 
in  entering  occupations  that  leave  them  at  the 
time  when  they  begin  to  need  an  adult's  subsist- 
ence wholly  out  of  line  for  skilled  employments. 
They  are  driven  into  the  ranks  of  the  unskilled. 
Certain  forms  of  industry  squander  in  this  way 
14 


CHAOS  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

the  physical  and  the  moral  capital  of  the  rising 
generation.  His  conclusions  are  that  if  no  coun- 
teracting measures  are  taken,  great  and  lasting 
injury  will  befall  the  national  life. 

An  official  report  some  years  ago  on  boys  leav- 
ing the  London  elementary  schools  shows  that 
forty  per  cent  became  errand  and  chore  boys, 
fourteen  per  cent  shop  boys,  eight  per  cent  office 
boys  and  minor  clerks,  while  only  eighteen  per 
cent  went  definitely  into  trades.  There  is  a  fairly 
satisfactory  law  in  England  governing  employ- 
ment in  factories  and  work-shops.  It  is  the  un- 
regulated drift  from  a  vast  variety  of  juvenile 
occupations  into  the  low-skilled  labor  market 
that  presents  grave  aspects.  In  his  study  of 
boy  labor,  Mr.  Cyril  Jackson  points  out  that 
few  boys  ever  pick  up  skill  after  a  year  or  two 
spent  on  errand  or  similar  work.  The  larger 
number  fall  into  low-skilled  and  casual  employ- 
ments. 

Ample  confirmation  of  the  Royal  Commission's 
findings  may  be  found  in  the  report  of  the  Con-. 
sultative  Committee  on  Attendance  at  Continu- 
ation Schools  in  England  and  Wales,  published 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

at  about  the  same  time.  The  conclusions  from 
its  exhaustive  investigations  and  its  interviews 
with  scores  of  employers  and  others  read  much 
like  the  pages  of  the  Royal  Commission's  report. 
The  evils  of  educational  neglect  during  adoles- 
cence, this  Committee  finds,  are  often  aggravated 
by  the  facility  with  which  blind-alley  occupa- 
tions are  entered.  Such  employments  as  that 
of  errand  boy  are  not  necessarily  demoralizing. 
Many  a  boy  has  started  in  this  humble  way  on  a 
career  of  success.  But  callings  like  this  are  apt 
to  waste  the  years  during  which  a  boy  should 
make  a  beginning  at  a  skilled  or  developing  occu- 
pation. The  probabilities  are  that  younger,  but 
trained,  competitors  eventually  oust  the  untrained 
workers,  and  at  a  time  when  these  untrained 
workers  are  charged  with  adult  responsibilities. 
The  necessity  of  guidance  intended  to  avert 
the  entrance  of  thousands  of  boys  and  girls  into 
a  vocational  cul-de-sac  is  appreciated  by  this  Com- 
mittee. Its  conviction  is  clearly  expressed  that 
the  most  dangerous  point  in  the  lives  of  children 
in  an  elementary  school  is  the  moment  at  which 
they  leave  it.  The  investigations  have  shown 
16 


CHAOS  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

how  difficult  is  the  taking  of  the  right  step  at 
this  stage,  and  the  lamentable  consequences  of 
taking  a  wrong  one.  This  difficulty  is  due  in 
large  measure  to  the  inability  of  parents  to  get 
the  necessary  information  as  to  the  conditions  of 
employment,  the  wages,  and  the  future  prospects 
of  various  occupations,  as  well  as  a  knowledge  of 
the  educational  opportunities  and  requirements 
for  efficiency  in  the  occupations.  The  Committee 
has  found  that  there  are  parents  who  are  under 
no  compulsion  to  send  their  children  to  work, 
and  that  they  would  be  both  able  and  willing  to 
accept  lower  wages  at  first  for  the  sake  of  sub- 
sequent advantages  in  the  vocations ;  but  their 
ignorance  of  these  matters  makes  it  impossible 
for  them  to  select  wisely  for  their  children. 
"  Unless  children  are  thus  cared  for  at  this  turn- 
ing-point in  their  lives/'  says  the  Consultative 
Committee,  "the  store  of  knowledge  and  dis- 
cipline acquired  at  school  will  be  quickly  dissi- 
pated, and  they  will  soon  become  unfit  either  for 
employment  or  for  further  education."  l 

The  intervening  years,  then,  between  leaving 

1  Report  of  the  Consultative  Committee,  p.  22. 

17 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

school,  which  the  great  majority  do  at  fourteen 
years  of  age,  and  the  entrance  into  an  occupation 
that  promises  any  development  at  all  are  largely 
wasted.  Society  gains  little  by  the  labor  of 
thousands  of  its  children  at  the  most  important 
period  of  their  growth.  It  is  not  that  much  of 
this  work  is  not  of  social  value,  but  with  our 
present  neglect  we  offer  no  corrective  for  the  in- 
jury that  follows.  The  reports  of  the  two  com- 
missions on  Industrial  Education  in  Massachu- 
setts; investigations  into  street  trades  in  Boston, 
Chicago,  and  elsewhere;  and  all  the  observations 
of  the  child-saving  societies  in  this  country  con- 
firm the  Royal  Commission's  alarm  over  juve- 
nile labor  as  now  performed. 

The  employer  is  Very  often  as  much  a  victim 
of  these  conditions  as  the  boy  himself.  The 
allurement  of  high  wages  for  uninstructive  work 
is  soon  understood  by  many  a  boy,  and  his  rest- 
lessness in  these  occupations,  where  often,  with- 
out any  provocation,  he  throws  up  his  place,  is 
a  constant  source  of  vexation  and  destroys  any 
plan  which  the  employer  might  have  in  view  for 
the  promotion  of  his  boys.  This  skipping  from 
18 


CHAOS  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

job  to  job  can  only  mean  for  most  boys  demoral- 
ization. They  become  vocational  hoboes.  They 
are  given  work  only  because  nobody  else  is 
in  sight,  and  they  stay  at  work  as  little  as 
they  may.  Juvenile  wages  are  their  portion, 
no  matter  what  services  they  render,  nor  for 
how  long  a  period.  A  tragic  situation  is  here 
disclosed.  Not  only  do  we  find  that  modern 
working  conditions  "put  a  man  on  the  shelf"  in 
the  prime  of  his  years,  because  the  speed  and 
skill  of  younger  brains  and  hands  are  required, 
but  we  find,  too,  a  shelving  of  youth  itself  before 
life  has  given  the  young  workers  even  an  open- 
ing. They  seem  doomed  to  be  juvenile  adults 
bound  by  an  iron  law  of  juvenile  wages.  The 
"dead  end,"  or  "blind  alley"  occupations,  there- 
fore, with  their  bait  of  high  initial  wages  and 
their  destructiveness  to  any  serious  life-work 
motive  are  breeding  costly  social  evils.  Unani- 
mous testimony  on  this  point  by  the  special  in- 
vestigators of  the  Royal  Commission  has  led  to 
the  opinion  that  this  perhaps  is  the  most  serious 
of  all  the  problems  encountered  in  its  study  of 
unemployment.  A  term  of  sinister  import  has 

19 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

been  coined  to  describe  the  products  of  this  vo- 
cational anarchy  —  the  Unemployables. 

The  unemployables  are  people  whom  no  ordi- 
nary employer  would  willingly  employ,  not  ne- 
cessarily because  of  their  physical  or  mental  in- 
capacity, but  because  their  economic  backbone 
has  been  broken.  The  wasted  years  have  landed 
their  innocent  victims  on  economic  quicksands. 
Attractive  wages  with  no  training,  the  illegiti- 
mate use  of  youthful  energy,  long  hours  of  mo- 
notonous and  uneducative  work,  have  produced 
at  his  majority  a  young  man  often  precocious 
in  evil  and  stunted  in  his  vocational  possibili- 
ties. 

It  is  quite  clear  that  provision  for  adequate 
training  and  systematic  counseling  at  the  period 
of  life  when  boys  and  girls  are  most  largely  thrown 
upon  their  individual  resources  would  help  cor- 
rect these  lamentable  conditions.  The  movement 
for  vocational  education  rests  solidly  on  an  ap- 
preciation of  the  facts.  Education  has  become 
more  practical  because  it  has  become  more 
democratic.  Preparing  youth  for  a  serviceable 
life  is  the  ideal  of  the  modern  educator.  This 
20 


CHAOS  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

preparation  is  also  for  a  life  of  larger  apprecia- 
tion and  wider  sympathies  than  the  old-fashioned 
liberal  education  alone  can  give.  Neither  the 
home,  the  common  school,  nor  the  present-day 
conditions  of  breadwinning  can  give  youth  the 
necessary  preparation  for  efficient  living.  The 
stress  of  competition,  large-scale  operations  of 
production  and  distribution,  the  subdivision  and 
speed  of  labor,  the  higher  standards  of  profes- 
sional equipment,  make  it  well-nigh  impossible 
for  youth  to  get  its  necessary  instruction  during 
the  period  of  work  alone.  In  industry  the  boys 
are  taken  on,  not  as  apprentices,  but  as  "  process 
workers  "  where,  while  becoming  expert  in  one 
minute  operation,  they  learn  nothing  of  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  the  work  on  which  the 
plastic  period  of  their  youth  is  spent.  Where 
are  the  boy  and  girl  to  find  that  training  which 
shall  reasonably  assure  them  self-support  and 
vocational  progress  ?  Not  a  few  employers  con- 
fessedly expect  their  competitors  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  training  employees,  who  are  eagerly  ap- 
propriated when  they  have  become  proficient 
The  "learners  "  in  almost  every  desirable  occu- 

21 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

pation  are  expected  to  know  something  and 
amount  to  something  from  the  very  outset  in 
employment. 

New  demands  are  made  upon  the  public  school 
system  as  the  agency  for  solving  the  problem  of 
vocational  education.  The  right  of  every  child  to 
secure  the  best  possible  chance  in  life  makes 
necessary  the  public  control  of  vocational  train- 
ing. The  future  development  of  our  industries, 
the  creation  of  high-grade  productive  enterprises 
which  pay  good  wages  and  demand  intelligent 
workers,  call  for  the  training  of  large  masses, 
such  as  the  public  schools  alone  can  reach.  Em- 
ployers demand  well-trained  youth  for  their  shops 
and  offices,  and  they  take  the  schools  to  task  for 
the  ill-equipped  product  turned  out.  Vocational 
education  is  growing  into  a  nation-wide  move- 
ment. 

Underlying  the  demand  for  intelligently  pro- 
ductive youth  both  in  the  trades  and  in  the  pro- 
fessions, there  is  another  which  the  movement 
for  vocational  guidance  will  make  insistent.  It  is 
proper  that  those  who  give  employment  to  boys 
and  girls  shall  ask  for  more  efficiency.  It  is  whole- 

22 


CHAOS  AND   ITS   CONSEQUENCES 

some  for  any  public  institution  to  be  measured 
by  concrete  tests  and  be  called  upon  to  render 
account  of  its  work.  But  it  is  equally  a  right  and 
duty  of  those  entrusted  with  the  nurture  of  the 
rising  generation  to  make  the  vocations  render 
account  too.  What  happens  to  the  boys  and  girls 
under  the  new  influences  in  employment  is  not 
alone  a  question  between  them  and  their  individ- 
ual employer,  nor  between  them  and  their  par- 
ents, but  it  is  essentially  one  for  the  community. 
The  social  protection  of  the  young  ceases  arti- 
ficially and  arbitrarily  when  the  school  working 
certificate  is  granted.  This  ought  not  to  continue 
so.  On  the  contrary,  ought  not  the  few  years 
after  leaving  school  to  be  the  time  for  most  care- 
ful scrutiny  by  the  public  ?  While  the  authorities 
are  given  increasing  resources  to  train  their 
charges  for  the  demands  of  modern  vocational 
life,  should  they  not  be  likewise  empowered  to 
deal  with  abuse  and  misapplication  of  society's 
expensively  trained  product  ?  A  searching  evalu- 
ation of  occupations  must  surely  be  undertaken 
in  order  that  foreknowledge  and  forewarning 
shall  be  in  the  possession  of  the  parent,  teacher, 
23 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

boy  and  girl.  The  job,  too,  should  be  made  to 
give  an  account  of  itself.  The  desirable  occupa 
tions  must  be  studied  and  better  prepared  for; 
the  dull  and  deadly  being  classified  in  a  rogue's 
gallery  of  their  own.  Then  only  can  reciprocal 
purpose  mark  the  relation  between  employer  and 
employee.  For  the  necessary  yet  uneducative 
work  which  young  people  are  obliged  to  do,  com- 
pensation is  needed  in  the  form  of  leisure  and 
opportunity  for  further  training  in  special  day 
classes  and  schools  provided  for  such  workers. 
Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  the  near  future  will 
see  society  join  hands  with  the  best  employers 
and  the  friends  of  youth  to  conserve  during  the 
decisive  vocational  years  the  best  of  its  capabili- 
ties for  service  and  growth  ? 


Ill 

BEGINNINGS  IN  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

A  GROWING  interest  and  an  increasing  literature 
indicate  a  new  attitude  toward  the  training  of 
youth.  The  Convention  of  the  National  Educa- 
tion Association  held  in  1910  might  be  said  to 
have  found  its  keynote  in  the  aptly  phrased  title 
of  President  Eliot's  address,  "The  Value,  dur- 
ing Education,  of  the  Life-Career  Motive."  The 
thousands  of  teachers  must  have  departed  with 
the  conviction  that  the  success  of  the  coming 
education  will  lie  in  the  strength  of  the  intelli- 
gent purpose  it  develops  in  the  boy  and  girl  to 
do  the  work  of  the  world  efficiently.  The  report 
of  the  Committee  on  the  Place  of  Industry  in 
Public  Education  is  a  contribution  to  the  subject 
of  vocational  preparation.  It  grasps  throughout 
the  fundamental  need  of  training  to  choose  life- 
work  intelligently.  "  It  is  to  be  hoped,"  says  this 
report,  "that  the  constructive  work  and  the  study 
of  industry  in  the  elementary  school  will  ulti- 
25 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

mately  be  of  such  a  character  that  when  the 
pupil  reaches  the  age  at  which  the  activities  of 
adult  life  make  their  appeal,  he  will  be  able  to 
make  a  wise  choice  in  reference  to  them  and  be 
already  advanced  in  an  appreciable  measure  to- 
ward the  goal  of  his  special  vocation." 1 

The  question  of  training  for  choice  relates 
quite  as  much  to  the  selection  of  the  right  kind 
of  further  schooling  as  to  that  of  a  vocation.  It 
is  quite  as  important  to  attend  the  right  kind  of 
high  school  as  it  is  to  do  the  work  one  is  best 
fitted  for.  Two  illustrations  from  Boston  school 
experiences  show  a  promising  beginning  in  the 
new  method  of  helping  in  the  selection  of  pupils 
for  the  various  high  schools  of  the  city.  Both  the 
High  School  of  Commerce  and  the  High  School 
of  Practical  Arts  received  applications  for  en- 
trance from  several  hundred  more  grammar- 
school  graduates  than  could  be  accommodated. 
What  pupils  were  to  be  given  the  preference ;  on 
what  basis  were  they  to  be  picked  ?  The  Boston 
School  Committee  has  authorized  the  school 
superintendent  to  work  out  with  the  school  prin- 
1  Paper  by  Prof.  E.  N.  Henderson,  page  20. 

26 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

cipals  a  plan  whereby  each  school  might  desig- 
nate one  or  more  teachers  to  serve  as  vocational 
advisers  for  the  school.  Something  like  a  hun- 
dred teachers  have  been  so  designated,  and  their 
services  to  the  high  schools  in  question  may  be 
told  in  the  words  of  the  officials  themselves.  The 
head-master  of  the  High  School  of  Practical 
Arts  writes :  "  When  it  became  evident  that 
many  more  girls  than  could  be  taken  had  sent  in 
applications  for  admission,  I  wrote  the  principals 
requesting  them  to  turn  the  list  over  to  the  vo- 
cational counselors  with  the  suggestion  that  the 
pupils  be  graded  according  to  their  standing  in 
cooking,  sewing,  and  drawing.  I  also  asked  that 
those  who  could  afford  only  one  year  for  further 
preparation  be  directed  to  the  trade  schools. 
Girls  without  special  liking  for  our  work  were 
shown  the  possibilities  of  the  other  schools. 

"  The  girls  were  classed  in  three  groups,  first, 
second,  and  third,  according  to  standing  in  the 
subjects  above  mentioned,  together  with  the  taste 
and  personal  adaptability  of  each.  I  took  all  of 
the  first  and  some  of  the  second,  giving  personal 
attention  to  some  special  cases.  If  good  judg- 
27 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

ment  has  been  shown,  our  classes  will  be  made 
up  of  girls  who  will  take  an  interest  in  the  work 
of  the  school  and  who  will  profit  thereby." 

Here  is  a  communication  of  the  former  head- 
master of  the  High  School  of  Commerce  :  "The 
plan  of  having  the  vocational  counselors  of 
grammar  schools  select  boys  for  our  high  school 
was  as  follows:  'The  problem  with  the  High 
School  of  Commerce  has  been  a  pressing  one  for 
the  past  two  years.  Last  year  we  selected  by  lot, 
thinking  that  such  a  method  was  fairest  and 
most  democratic.  This  year,  when  vocational  ad- 
visers were  appointed  in  each  grammar  school,  we 
thought  that  we  could  properly  call  upon  them 
to  solve  the  problem.  Superintendent  Brooks 
readily  gave  his  consent.  At  a  meeting  held  in 
the  spring,  some  of  us  addressed  all  the  voca- 
tional advisers  of  the  grammar  schools,  explain- 
ing the  types  of  school  and  the  kind  of  boys 
suitable.  Opportunity  was  given  for  question. 
Many  of  the  advisers  then  visited  the  schools. 
They  took  the  matter  in  earnest,  calling  in  the 
parents  and  forming  a  very  careful  judgment  in 
selecting  the  boys.  At  our  school  we  feel  that 
28 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

the  best  method  yet  has  been  found,  and  that 
the  system  will  improve  year  by  year.'" 

An  organized  plan  for  advising  young  people 
as  to  the  continuance  of  their  schooling  and  the 
choosing  of  their  life-work  is  at  least  a  reason-  « 
able  attempt  to  meet  the  vocational  situation  we 
have  been  considering.  An  experiment  with  a 
group  of  high-school  boys  shortly  before  their 
graduation  three  years  ago  revealed  a  need  for 
vocational  guidance  which  led  to  what  is  prob* 
ably  the  first  vocation  bureau  in  this  country. 
Sixty  or  more  boys  were  invited  to  a  reception 
on  the  roof-garden  of  the  Civic  Service  House 
in  the  North  End  of  Boston,  to  talk  over  their 
future  plans  with  the  late  Prof.  Frank  Parsons 
and  several  other  workers  of  that  neighborhood 
house.  The  conference  disclosed  that  about  a 
dozen  of  the  boys  were  going  to  college,  a  third 
of  the  rest  hoped  to  be  lawyers,  almost  another 
third  doctors,  three  or  four  had  definite  plans  for 
business  careers,  while  the  rest  had  no  plans  and 
were  going  to  take  whatever  came  along.  It  is  a 
question  if  those  with  no  plans  in  view  were  not 
better  off  than  the  boys  who  planned  for  legal 
29 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

and  medical  studies,  woefully  unprepared,  most 
of  them,  for  the  expense,  the  sacrifice,  and  the 
struggles  that  even  moderate  success  in  those 
callings  demanded.  Indeed,  vocation,  literally 
calling,  is  not  the  word  to  use  ;  with  many  of  the 
boys  the  ideal  compulsion  to  follow  some  one 
pursuit  above  all  others  was  not  evident.  There 
could  be  no  doubt  that  the  ambition  and  perse- 
verance of  some  of  these  boys  would  overcome 
the  obstacles  in  store  for  them ;  but  unfortu- 
nately the  story  of  success  is  more  easily  told 
than  that  of  mediocrity  or  failure.  We  have  yet 
to  learn  how  to  take  stock  of  waste  and  misdi- 
rection as  well  as  of  achievement  in  human  pur- 
suits. 

An  office  was  opened  to  give  those  who  so  de- 
sired an  opportunity  to  talk  over  their  vocational 
problems  with  a  sympathetic  and  skilled  econo- 
mist. Prof.  Frank  Parsons  was  put  in  charge  of 
the  Civic  Service  House  Vocation  Office,  and  he 
was  also  available  for  interviews  at  the  Women's 
Educational  and  Industrial  Union,  and  the  Bos- 
ton Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  Scores 
of  men  and  women  of  all  ages  and  conditions  as 
30 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

well  as  hundreds  of  letters  came  to  him  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  A  pathetic  note  of  self- 
doubt  and  helpless  drifting  was  the  burden  of  an 
amazing  number  of  these  communications.  Of 
course  nothing  could  be  done  for  the  letter-writ- 
ers, because  vocational  counseling  could  not  hon- 
estly be  given  except  through  skilled  and  friendly 
personal  contact. 

Prof.  Parsons's  work  is  described  in  the  last 
volume  which  he  wrote,  entitled  "Choosing  a  Vo- 
cation/'1 The  importance  of  scientific  methods 
in  self-analysis  and  the  working  out  of  written 
personal  data  to  use  in  the  course  of  a  number  of 
interviews  with  the  counselor  was  emphasized 
by  Professor  Parsons  in  his  work  for  the  appli- 
cant. The  counselor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  to 
be  trained  according  to  a  definite  plan,  and 
equipped  with  a  knowledge  of  the  vocations,  of 
industrial  statistics,  and  of  every  kind  of  avail- 
able educational  opportunity. 

Within  a  year  the  interest  taken  by  business 
men,  educators,  and  social  workers  in  the  pos- 
sibilities of  a  well-organized  vocation  bureau, 
1  Published  by  Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 

31 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

located  centrally  in  offices  of  its  own,  has  given 
that  undertaking  a  better  foundation  and  a  wider 
scope.  The  new  Vocation  Bureau's  relations  with 
the  Boston  School  Committee  and  the  work  of 
the  School  Vocation  Committee  appointed  by 
the  school  authorities  are  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant features  thus  far  in  its  work. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1909,  the  School  Com- 
mittee of  Boston  passed  a  resolution  inviting 
the  Vocation  Bureau  to  submit  a  plan  for  voca- 
tional guidance  to  assist  public-school  graduates. 
The  Bureau  presented  the  following  sugges- 
tions :  — 

"First,  the  Bureau  will  employ  a  vocational 
director  to  give  practically  his  entire  time  to  the 
organization  of  vocational  counsel  to  the  gradu- 
ates of  the  Boston  Public  Schools  during  the 
ensuing  year. 

"  Second,  the  work  of  this  vocational  director 
shall  be  carried  on  in  cooperation  with  the 
Boston  School  Committee  or  the  Superintend- 
ent of  Schools  as  the  Committee  shall  see  fit. 

"  Third,  it  is  the  plan  of  the  Bureau  to  have 
this  vocational  director  organize  a  conference  of 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

masters  and  teachers  of  the  Boston  high  schools 
through  the  Committee  or  the  Superintendent, 
so  that  members  of  the  graduating  classes  will 
be  met  for  vocational  advice  either  by  this  voca- 
tional director  or  by  the  cooperating  school  mas- 
ters and  teachers,  all  working  along  a  general 
plan,  to  be  adopted  by  this  conference. 

"Fourth,  the  vocational  director  should,  in 
cooperation  with  the  Superintendent  of  Schools 
or  any  person  whom  he  may  appoint,  arrange  vo- 
cational lectures  for  the  members  of  the  gradu- 
ating classes. 

"Fifth,  the  Bureau  believes  that  school  mas- 
ters and  teachers  should  be  definitely  trained  to 
give  vocational  counsel,  and  therefore,  that  it  is 
advisable  for  this  vocational  director,  in  coop- 
eration with  the  Superintendent  of  Schools,  to 
establish  a  series  of  conferences  to  which  certain 
selected  teachers  and  masters  should  be  invited 
on  condition  that  that  they  will  agree  in  turn 
definitely  to  do  vocational  counseling  with  their 
own  pupils. 

"Sixth,  the  vocational  director  will  keep  a 
careful  record  of  the  work  accomplished  for  the 
33 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

pupils  during  the  year,  the  number  of  pupils 
counseled  with,  the  attitude  of  the  pupils  witl 
reference  to  a  choice  of  vocations,  the  advice 
given  and,  as  far  as  possible,  the  results  follow- 
ing. These  records  should  form  the  basis  for  a 
report  to  the  Boston  School  Committee  at  the 
end  of  the  year.  The  Bureau  cherishes  the  hope 
that  it  can  so  demonstrate  the  practicability  and 
value  of  this  work  that  the  Boston  School  Com- 
mittee will  eventually  establish  in  its  regular 
organization  a  supervisor  of  vocational  advice." 
This  communication  was  signed  by  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Vocation 
Bureau.  On  June  7,  1909,  the  School  Committee 
at  a  regular  meeting  took  favorable  action  on  the 
Vocation  Bureau's  propositions  and  instructed 
the  Superintendent  to  appoint  a  committee  of  six 
to  work  with  the  Vocation  Bureau  director.  For 
almost  a  year  the  committee  thus  appointed,  con- 
sisting of  three  masters  and  three  sub-masters, 
have  been  holding  weekly  meetings  at  the  office 
of  the  Vocation  Bureau.  Their  report  to  the 
Superintendent  of  Schools  is  worth  quoting  in 
full  not  only  because  of  the  valuable  sugges- 
34 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

tions  it  contains,  but  also  as  a  promising  indi- 
cation of  the  teachers*  attitude  toward  the  in- 
troduction of  vocational  guidance  in  the  school 
system:  — 

"  The  Committee  on  Vocational  Direction  respectfully 
presents  the  following  as  a  report  for  the  school  year  just 
closed.  The  past  year  has  been  a  year  of  beginnings,  the 
field  of  operation  being  large  and  the  problems  compli- 
cated. A  brief  survey  of  the  work  shows  the  following 
results :  — 

"A  general  interest  in  vocational  direction  has  been 
aroused  among  the  teachers  of  Boston,  not  only  in  the 
elementary  but  in  the  high  schools. 

"A  vocational  counselor,  or  a  committee  of  such  coun- 
selors, has  been  appointed  in  every  high  school  and  in  all 
but  one  of  the  elementary  schools. 

"  A  vocational  card  record  of  every  elementary  school 
graduate  for  this  year  has  been  made,  to  be  forwarded  to 
the  high  school  in  the  fall. 

"  Stimulating  vocational  lectures  have  been  given  to 
thirty  of  the  graduating  classes  of  the  elementary  schools 
of  Boston,  including  all  the  schools  in  the  more  congested 
parts  of  the  city. 

"  Much  has  been  done  by  way  of  experiment  by  the 
members  of  this  committee  in  the  various  departments  o. 
getting  employment,  counseling,  and  following  up  pupils* 
after  leaving  school. 

35 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

"  The  interest  and  loyal  cooperation  of  many  of  the 
leading  philanthropic  societies  of  Boston  have  been  se- 
cured, as  well  as  that  of  many  prominent  in  the  business 
and  professional  life  of  the  city  and  the  state. 

"  A  good  beginning  has  already  been  made  in  review- 
ing books  suitable  for  vocational  libraries  in  the  schools. 

"It  was  early  decided  that  we  should  confine  our  efforts 
for  the  first  year  mainly  to  pupils  of  the  highest  element- 
ary grade  as  the  best  point  of  contact.  The  problem  of 
vocational  aid  and  counsel  in  the  high  schools  has  not  as 
yet  been  directly  dealt  with,  yet  much  that  is  valuable  has 
been  accomplished  in  all  our  high  schools  on  the  initia- 
tive of  the  head-masters  and  selected  teachers.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  the  quality  and  amount  of  vocational  aid  and 
direction  has  far  exceeded  any  hitherto  given  in  those 
schools.  The  committee,  through  open  and  private  con- 
ferences, and  correspondence  with  the  head-masters,  have 
kept  in  close  touch  with  the  situation  in  high  schools,  but 
they  feel  that  for  the  present  year  it  is  best  for  the  vari- 
ous types  of  high  schools  each  to  work  out  its  own  plan 
of  vocational  direction.  The  facts  regarding  their  experi- 
ence can  properly  be  made  the  basis  of  a  later  report.  A 
committee  of  three,  appointed  by  the  Head-masters'  Asso- 
ciation, stands  ready  to  advise  with  this  committee  on  all 
matters  relating  to  high  school  vocational  interests.  Once 
during  the  year  the  principals  of  the  specialized  high 
schools  met  in  conference  the  vocational  counselors  of 
the  city  and  have  presented  the  aims  and  curricula  of 

36 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

these  schools  in  such  a  way  as  to  greatly  enlighten  those 
responsible  for  advising  pupils  just  entering  high  schools. 

"The  committee  have  held  regular  weekly  meetings 
through  the  school  year  since  September.  At  these  meet- 
ings every  phase  of  vocational  aid  has  been  discussed, 
together  with  its  adaptability  to  our  present  educational 
system.  Our  aim  has  been  to  test  the  various  conclusions 
before  recommending  them  for  adoption.  This  has  taken 
time.  Our  most  serious  problem  so  far  has  been  to  adapt 
our  plans  to  conditions  as  we  find  them,  without  increas- 
ing the  teachers*  work  and  without  greatly  increased  ex- 
pense. We  have  assumed  that  the  movement  was  not  a 
temporary  '  fad/  but  that  it  had  a  permanent  value,  and 
was  therefore  worthy  the  serious  attention  of  educators. 

"Three  aims  have  stood  out  above  all  others:  first,  to 
secure  thoughtful  consideration,  on  the  part  of  parents, 
pupils,  and  teachers,  of  the  importance  of  a  life-career 
motive ;  second,  to  assist  in  every  way  possible  in  placing 
pupils  in  some  remunerative  work  on  leaving  school;  and 
third,  to  keep  in  touch  with  and  help  them  thereafter, 
suggesting  means  of  improvement  and  watching  the  ad- 
vancement of  those  who  need  such  aid.  The  first  aim  has 
been  in  some  measure  achieved  throughout  the  city.  The 
other  two  have  thus  far  been  worked  out  only  by  the 
individual  members  of  the  committee.  As  a  result  we  are 
very  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  until  some  central  bureau 
of  information  for  pupils  regarding  trade  and  mercantile 
opportunities  is  established,  and  some  effective  system  of 

37 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

sympathetically  following  up  pupils,  for  a  longer  or  21 
shorter  period  after  leaving  school,  is  organized  in  our 
schools  as  centres,  the  effort  to  advise  and  direct  merely 
will  largely  fail.  Both  will  require  added  executive  labor 
which  will  fall  upon  the  teachers  at  first.  We  believe  they 
will  accept  the  responsibility.  If,  as  Dr.  Eliot  says,  teach- 
ers find  those  schools  more  interesting  where  the  life- 
career  motive  is  present,  then  the  sooner  that  motive  is 
discovered  in  the  majority  of  pupils  the  more  easily  will 
the  daily  work  be  done  and  the  product  correspondingly 
improved. 

"  In  order  to  enlist  the  interest  and  cooperation  of  the 
teachers  of  Boston,  three  mass  meetings,  one  in  October 
and  two  in  the  early  spring,  were  held.  A  fourth  meeting 
with  the  head-masters  of  high  schools  was  also  held  with 
the  same  object.  As  a  most  gratifying  result  the  general 
attitude  is  most  sympathetic  and  the  enthusiasm  marked. 
The  vocation  counselors  in  high  and  elementary  schools 
form  a  working  organization  of  over  one  hundred  teach- 
ers, representing  all  the  schools.  A  responsible  official,  or 
committee,  in  each  school  stands  ready  to  advise  pupils 
and  parents  at  times  when  they  most  need  advice  and  are 
asking  for  it.  They  suggest  whatever  helps  may  be  avail- 
able in  further  educational  preparation.  They  are  ready 
to  fit  themselves  professionally  to  do  this  work  more  in- 
telligently  and  discriminatingly,  not  only  by  meeting  to- 
gether for  mutual  counsel  and  exchange  of  experiences, 
but  by  study  and  expert  preparation  if  need  be. 

38 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

"As  a  beginning  of  our  work  with  pupils  we  have  fol- 
lowed out  two  lines :  the  lecture  and  the  card  record 
The  addresses  have  been  mainly  stimulating  and  inspira- 
tional. It  seems  to  the  committee,  however,  that  specific 
information  coming  from  those  intimately  connected  with 
certain  lines  of  labor  should  have  a  place  also  in  this  lec- 
ture phase  of  our  work.  In  a  large  number  of  high  and 
elementary  schools  addresses  of  this  character  have  been 
given  by  experts  during  the  year.  The  committee  claim 
no  credit  for  these,  though  carried  out  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  movement  the  committee  represent.  The  cus- 
tom of  having  such  addresses  given  before  Junior  Alumni 
Associations,  Parents'  Associations,  and  evening  school 
gatherings  has  become  widespread,  the  various  masters 
taking  the  initiative  in  such  cases.  The  speakers  are  able 
to  quote  facts  with  an  authority  that  is  convincing  to  the 
pupil  and  leads  him  to  take  a  more  serious  view  of  his 
future  plans,  especially  if  the  address  is  followed  up  by 
similar  talks  from  the  class  teacher,  emphasizing  the 
points  of  the  speaker.  This  is  a  valuable  feature  and 
should  be  extended  to  include  more  of  the  elementary 
grades,  especially  in  the  more  densely  settled  portions  of 
the  city,  from  which  most  of  our  unskilled  workers  come. 

"  A  vocational  record  card  calling  for  elementary  school 
data  on  one  side  and  for  high  school  data  on  the  other, 
has  been  furnished  all  the  elementary  schools  for  regis- 
tration of  this  year's  graduates.  The  same  card  will  be 
furnished  to  high  schools  this  fall.  These  cards  are  to  be 

39 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

sent  forward  by  the  elementary  school  counselors  to  high 
schools  in  September,  to  be  revised  twice  during  the  high 
school  course.  The  value  of  the  card  record  is  not  so 
much  in  the  registering  of  certain  data  as  in  the  results 
of  the  process  of  getting  these.  The  effect  upon  the 
mental  attitude  of  pupil,  teacher,  and  parent  is  excellent, 
and  makes  an  admirabk  beginning  in  the  plan  of  voca- 
tional direction. 

"  The  committee  are  now  in  a  position  where  they  must 
meet  a  demand  of  both  pupils  and  teachers  for  vocational 
enlightenment.  Pupils  should  have  detailed  information 
in  the  form  of  inexpensive  handbooks  regarding  the  vari- 
ous callings  and  how  to  get  into  them,  wages,  permanence 
of  employment,  chance  of  promotion,  etc.  Teachers  must 
have  a  broader  outlook  upon  industrial  opportunities  for 
boys  and  girls.  Even  those  teachers  who  know  their 
pupils  well  generally  have  little  acquaintance  with  indus- 
trial conditions.  The  majority  can  advise  fairly  well  how 
to  prepare  for  a  profession,  while  few  can  tell  a  boy  how 
to  get  into  a  trade,  or  what  the  opportunities  therein  are. 
In  this  respect  our  teachers  will  need  to  be  more  broadly 
informed  regarding  social,  industrial,  and  economic  prob- 
lems. We  have  to  face  a  more  serious  problem  in  a 
crowded  American  city  than  in  a  country  where  children 
are  supposed  to  fellow  the  father's  trade. 

"In  meeting  the  two  most  pressing  needs,  viz.,  the  vo- 
cational enlightenment  of  teachers,  parents,  and  pupils, 
and  the  training  of  vocational  counselors,  we  shall  con- 

40 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

tinue  to  look  for  aid  to  the  Vocation  Bureau.  The  Bureau 
has  been  of  much  assistance  during  the  past  year,  in  fact 
indispensable,  in  matters  of  correspondence,  securing  in- 
formation, getting  out  printed  matter,  and  in  giving  the 
committee  counsel  based  upon  a  superior  knowledge  of 
men  and  conditions  in  the  business  world. 

44  The  question  of  vocational  direction  is  merely  one 
phase  of  the  greater  question  of  vocational  education.  As 
a  contributory  influence  we  believe  serious  aggressive 
work  in  this  line  will  lead  to  several  definite  results,  aside 
from  the  direct  benefit  to  the  pupils.  It  will  create  a  de- 
mand for  better  literature  on  the  subject  of  vocations.  It 
will  help  increase  the  demand  for  more  and  better  trade 
schools.  It  will  cause  teachers  to  seek  to  broaden  their 
knowledge  of  opportunities  for  mechanical  and  mercan- 
tile training.  Lastly,  it  will  tend  to  a  more  intelligent  and 
generous  treatment  of  employees  by  business  houses,  the 
personal  welfare  and  prospects  of  the  employee  being 
taken  into  account  as  well  as  the  interests  of  the  house 
itself." 

The  vocational  record  card  referred  to  in  the 
report  for  use  throughout  the  school  years  of  the 
boys  and  girls  is  here  reproduced. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 


ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL  VOCATIONAL   RECORD   CARD 

Name School  and  Class 

Date  Birth 
Parent's  Name 
Residence 

Parent's  plans  for  pupil 
Pupil  excels  in  or  likes  what  subjects  ? 
Pupil  fails  in  or  dislikes  what  subjects? 

Physique  Pupil's  plan  —  (a  trade,  a  profession,  business) 

Attend  school,  or  work  next  year  ? 
What  school  ? 

Intend  to  graduate  from  that  school  ? 
After  High  School,  what  ? 
(College  —  Tech.  —  Normal  —  Evg.  High  —  Trade  Sch.  or  Spec.  Sch  ) 


HIGH   SCHOOL  VOCATIONAL  RECORD  CARD 

FIRST    YEAR    (OCT.    l) 

Name  From  School 

Entered 

Object  in  attending  High  School? 

!  Normal 
Technical 
College 
Preparing  for  business  —  trade  —  or  profession  ? 

Greatest  aptitude 

THIRD   YEAR    (OCT.    l) 

Have  you  changed  plans  since  first  year  ? 
If  so,  what  are  they  ? 


Apart    from    its    relations   with    the   Public 
Schools,  the  Vocation  Bureau  holds  consultations 
42 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

in  its  office  with  many  people  of  all  ages  who 
come  with  personal  problems.  It  actively  cooper- 
ates with  the  few  but  very  important  organiza- 
tions that  are  undertaking  special  vocational 
guidance.  Of  interest  are  the  plans  of  the  Girls' 
Trade  Education  League  and  the  Boston  Home 
and  School  Association,  both  of  which  societies 
are  represented  in  the  management  of  the  Voca- 
tion Bureau.  These  plans  are  in  process  of  de- 
velopment and  have  been  only  partially  carried 
out ;  but  they  represent  so  thorough  an  under- 
standing of  the  problem,  so  practical  and  detailed 
a  method  of  approach,  that  they  are  of  interest 
to  those  who  are  helping  to  bring  about  a  move- 
ment for  vocational  guidance. 

PLANS  OF  THE  GIRLS'  TRADE  EDUCATION 
LEAGUE  OF  BOSTON 

The  Girls'  Trade  Education  League  proposes 
to  make  a  thorough  study  of  the  variety  of  diffi- 
culties and  opportunities  which  confront  young 
girls  leaving  school  between  the  ages  of  14  and 
1 8  to  become  wage-earners.  Its  purpose  will  be 
to  try  to  lessen  the  misfits,  discouragements,  and 
43 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

failures  which  are  constantly  arising,  and  which 
seem  to  be  due  in  large  measure  to  the  hit-or- 
miss  fashion  in  which  girls  enter  an  employment, 
with  no  knowledge  of  its  requirements  and  no 
serious  thought  of  where  it  will  lead  them.  As 
these  girls  form  a  large  percentage  of  the  home- 
makers  of  the  future  it  is  important  to  direct 
them  into  occupations  which  do  not  retard  their 
development,  but  which  tend  to  increase  their 
general  efficiency. 

By  confining  its  field  to  the  subject  of  Voca- 
tions for  Girls,  the  League  will  supplement  the 
work  of  the  Vocation  Bureau. 

The  League  has  outlined  its  work  as  follows : 

I.  To  study  all  sorts  of  occupations  in  which  young 
girls  are  employed,  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
information  as  to  conditions  under  which  the 
work  is  performed,  ability  required,  wages  paid, 
steadiness  of  employment,  opportunities  for  ad- 
vancement, and  such  other  points  as  would  be 
useful  in  giving  advice. 

II.  Having  collected,  or  rather  continuously  collecting 
such  information,  the  League  will  endeavor  to 
place  this  at  the  disposal  of  the  public  schools, 
either  through  lectures,  classes,  printed  leaflets, 

44 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

or  in  whatever  way  it  may  be  found  most  useful 
to  them. 

III.  To  conduct  a  Vocation  Office  for  the  purpose  of 
directing  girls  into  employment  after  they  leave 
school.  In  this  work  the  endeavor  will  be  made 
not  so  much  to  find  work  for  a  girl,  as  to  direct 
her  into  that  particular  work  for  which  she 
seems  best  suited. 

In  general,  then,  the  League  hopes  to  be  of 
service  in  two  ways, — first,  by  furnishing  the 
public  schools  with  information  about  occupa- 
tions for  girls,  which  will  aid  them  in  counseling 
girls  who  are  plaining  to  leave  school  and  go  to 
work ;  and  second^  by  continuing  the  work  begun 
in  the  schools  with  a  "  follow-up  system  "  of  the 
girls  as  they  drop  out,  directing  them  in  accord 
with  their  individual  needs. 

PLAN  OF  THE    BOSTON    HOME  AND  SCHOOL 
ASSOCIATION 

For  the  coming  year  the  plan  is  to  secure  in- 
formation as  to  the  educational  and  vocational 
ambitions  of  parents  for  their  children,  and  to 
discover  how  far  those  ambitions  are  based  on 
knowledge  and  possible  opportunities  to  realize 
45 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 

them.  The  following  questionaire  will   be  sent 
out  to  the  parents  of  children  in  various  schools  : 

QUESTIONAIRE   FOR   PARENTS   OF    HIGH 
SCHOOL  PUPILS 

1.  Are  you  going  to  send  your  boy  (or  girl)  to  college? 

2.  If  so,  what  college,  and  why  ? 

3.  Have  you  in  view  any  occupation  for  which  you  wish 

to  train  your  boy  (or  girl)  ? 

4.  What  occupation  do  you  think  your  boy  (or  girl)  is 

most  adapted  to?  Has  your  boy  (or  girl)  received 
any  training  in  preparation  for  this  occupation  ? 

QUESTIONAIRE   FOR   PARENTS   OF  CHILDREN 
IN  THE  EIGHTH   GRADE 

1.  Are  you  intending  to  send  your  boy  (or  girl)  to  high 

school  ? 

2.  If  so,  what  high  school,  and  why  ? 

3.  Have  you  in  view  any  occupation  for  which  you  wish 

to  train  your  boy  (or  girl)  ? 

4.  What  occupation  do  you  think  your  boy  (or  girl)  is 

most  adapted  to  ?  Has  your  boy  (or  girl)  received 
any  training  in  preparation  for  this  occupation  ? 

With  the  above  information  in  hand,  the  Asso- 
ciation will  determine  the  kind  of  lectures  and 
conferences  to  organize  for  the  various  parents' 
associations. 

46 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

The  Vocation  Bureau  is  investigating  voca- 
tions for  Boston  boys,  and  expects  to  furnish,  in 
a  convenient  form,  information  to  teachers  about 
the  demands  and  conditions  of  occupations  open 
to  boys  of  the  city.  The  information  secured  is 
transcribed  on  white  cards  when  it  presents  'ior- 
mal  conditions,  on  yellow  cards  when  the  occu- 
pation is  undesirable  for  any  reason,  and  on  red 
cards  when  objectionable  or  dangerous.  The  fol- 
lowing specimens  of  the  data  secured  are  pre- 
sented with  the  identifying  facts  omitted  :  — 

THE  VOCATION   BUREAU,  BOSTON 

VOCATIONS   FOR   BOSTON   BOYS 

Nature  of  Occupation.     Shoe  Manufacture 
Date  of  Inquiry.    July  i,  19/0. 

Name  of  Firm 

Address 

Superintendent  or  Employment  Manager 

Total  number  of  employees  (  £££»,% „. 
Number  of  boys,  7200  /  girls,  1000. 

Has  there  been  a  shifting  in  relative  numbers  of  each  ?    No.    Thei 
is  fixed  work  for  each. 

PAY 

Wages  of  various  groups,  and  ages.    Errand  boys,  counters,  carrier *, 
14  years  old,  $330;  assemblers,  assistants,  pattern  boys,  /6  years, 

47 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

£j.ja  to  $6.00  ;  tasters,  20  years,  $6.00  to  $7.00  ;  other  work,  20  yean 

or  more,  $8.00  to  $12.00  for  young  men  in  early  employment. 
Wages  at  beginning.    $J.J0  to  $6,00. 
Seasonal.    By  year. 
Hours  per  day.    j.jo  A.  M.  to  5.30  P.  M.    To  12  M.  on  Saturday  in 

summer.     One  hour  nooning, 
Rate  of  increase.     This  is  very  irregular,  averaging  $>r.oo  per  week 

each  year. 

a.  On  what  dependent.     Not  at  all  on  age.  but  on  ability  and  posi- 

tion filled,  or  on  increase  in  skill  in  a  certain  process » 

b.  Time  or  piece  payment  —  any  premiums  or  bonus  ?     66%  piece 

payment.  Premium  on  certain  lines  for  quality  and  quan- 
tity of -work,  neatness  of  departments,  etc. 

BOYS 

How  are  boys  secured  ?    By  application  to  firm,  by  advertising,  and 

by  employees.    It  is  impossible  to  find  enough. 
Their  ages.    Fourteen  years  and  up. 
Previous  jobs.    Nearly  all  boys  come  into  this  industry  from  school. 

A  few  come  from  other  shoe  factories,  or  from  retail  shoe  stores. 
Previous  schooling.     Grammar  school,  or  a  certificate  of  literacy  or 

attendance  at  night  school  must  be  presented. 
Are  any  continuing  this  training  ?    Yes.     Where  ?    In  public  evening 

schools,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  classes,  and  Continuation  School  in  Boston. 

THE  INDUSTRY 

a.  Physical  conditions.     Most    sanitary,  with   modern  improve- 

ments and  safeguards,  with  hospital  department  and  trained 
nurses. 

b.  What  variety  of  skill  required  ?     Some  mechanical  skill.     The 

ordinary  boy  of  good  sense  can  easily  learn  all  processes. 

c.  Description  of  processes  (photos   if   possible).    Errand  boys, 

counters,  carriers,  assemblers,  assistants,  pattern  boys,  last- 
trs,  trimmers,  and  work  dieing,  welting,  and  ironing  shoes. 
Also  in.  office,  salesman,  foreman,  manager,  or  superintend' 
ctti. 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

d.  What  special  dangers. 

Machinery.     The  chief  danger  arises  from  carelessness* 
Dust.     Modern  dust  removers  are  used. 
Moisture.    Not  to  excess. 
Hard  labor.     Steady  labor  rather  than  hard. 
Strain.    Not  excessive. 

Monotony.     Considerable  on  automatic  machines. 
Competitive  conditions  of  industry.    New  England  is  a  great  centre, 
of  the  shoe  industry.     There  is  extreme  competition,  but  -with  a 
world  market. 
Future  of  industry.     The  future  of  a  staple  product  in  universal 

demand. 

What  chance  for  grammar  school  boy  ?  He  would  begin  at  the  bot- 
tom ,  as  errand  boy. 

High  school  graduate  ?  In  office,  or  in  wholesale  department,  to  be- 
come salesman,  or  manager. 

Vocational  school  graduate  ?  Trade  school,  giving  factory  equip- 
ment, would  be  best. 

What  opportunity  for  the  worker  to  show  what  he  can  do  in  other 
departments  ?  The  superintendent  and  foreman  study  the  boy 
and  place  him  where  it  seems  best  for  him  and  for  the  firm. 

TESTS 

What  kind  of  boy  is  desired  ?  Honest,  bright,  healthy,  strong.  Boys 
living  at  Jiotne  are  preferred. 

What  questions  asked  of  applicant  ?  As  to  home,  education,  experi- 
ence, and  why  leaving  any  former  position. 

What  tests  applied  ?     For  office  work,  writing  and  figuring. 

What  records  kept  ?     (Collect  all  printed  questionaires  and  records.) 

Name,  address,  age,  nationality,  married  or  single,  living  at  home 
or  boarding,  pay,  date  of  entering  and  of  leaving. 

Union  or  non-union  ?     Open  shop. 

Comment  of  Employer.     Education  is  better  for  the  boy  and  for  us. 

Will  he  take  boys  sent  by  Vocation  Bureau  ?     Yes. 

Will  he  attend  V.  B.  conferences  if  asked?     Gladly. 

Comment  of  Foreman.  Employment  bureaus  have  failed  us.  We 
look  everywhere  for  boys,  but  find  few  such  as  we  want.  The 

49 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 


average  boy  can  apply  himself  here  so  as  to  be  well  placed  in 
life. 

Comment  of  Boys.  We  have  a  bowling  alley,  reading  room,  and 
library,  park,  and  much  to  make  service  here  pleasant.  It  is 
something  like  school  still.  We  mean  to  stay.  Piece  work  will 
give  us  good  pay  by  the  time  we  are  twenty  years  old. 

Health  Board  comments.  Inhaling  naphtha  from  cements  and  dust 
from  leatherworking  machines,  and  overcrowding  and  overheating 
workrooms,  are  to  be  guarded  against  in  this  occupation.  The 
danger  of  each  injurious  process  may  be  prevented  by  proper 
care. 

CENSUS  BUREAU  REPORT  ON  THIS  OCCUPATION,  MASSACHU- 
SETTS, 1908. 


4 

a 

Number  of 

Establishrm 

Capital 
Invested. 

•8  m 
o"5 
gl 

ft 

Average 
Earnings. 

Males 
Employed. 

Females. 

Value  of 
Product. 

413 

$35,260,028 

$104,171,604 

*38f959>4*8 

46,063 

23,187 

$169,957,116 

Bibliography.  The  Shoe  Manufacturing  Industry  in  New  Eng- 
land. I.  K.  Bailey  (New  England  States,  v.  i,  1897),  and  Massa- 
chusetts Labor  Bulletin,  No.  14,  May,  1910. 

School  fitting  for  this  occupation.     The  Boston  Continuation  School. 


Investigator 


This  information  gathered  from  these  cards 
has  been  transcribed  into  narrative  form  for  the 
use  of  teachers,  and  some  specimen  bulletins  are 
here  given . 

50 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 


BANKING 

In  the  lowest  position  in  banking,  that  of  errand 
boy,  boys  receive  $4.00  and  $5.00  a  week.  For 
regular  messenger  service  the  pay  Pay^Position3 
begins  at  $6.00  a  week  or  $300  a  and  Oppor- 
year,  increasing,  on  an  average,  at 
the  rate  of  $100  a  year.  Young  men  as  check- 
tellers,  clerks,  bookkeepers,  and  bond  salesmen 
receive  from  $800  to  $1000  a  year.  The  average 
bank  employee  in  Boston  receives  $1100  a  year. 
Tellers,  who  must  be  responsible  and  able  men 
of  thirty  years  or  over,  have  salaries  ranging 
from  $2200  to  $3300. 

Savings  banks  pay  somewhat  higher  salaries 
and  offer  a  better  future  to  one  who  must  re- 
main in  the  ranks  of  the  business. 

Bank  officers  receive  higher  salaries  now  than 
bank  presidents  did  twenty  years  ago.  Officers 
and  heads  of  departments  in  a  banking-house 
are  not  always  taken  from  the  employees;  they 
are  often  selected  by  a  firm  from  its  acquaintance 
in  the  banking  world. 

Rarely  are  boys  employed  in  the  banking  in- 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

dustry  under  sixteen  years,  which  is  the  more 
general  age  for  entering.  Some  firms  will  not 

employ  them  under  nineteen  years 
The  Boy 
Qualities  and     of  age  on  account  of  the  great  re- 

Traming  sponsibility  of  the  messenger  ser- 

Required 

vice.  Boys  must  be  gentlemanly, 

neat-appearing,  intelligent,  honest,  business-like, 
and  able  to  concentrate  their  minds  upon  their 
daily  work. 

The  ordinary  high-school  education  is  the  gen- 
eral requirement  for  banking.  Some  boys  enter 
the  business  without  completing  the  high  school 
courses,  but  are  consequently  often  unable  to 
make  proper  advancement.  Courses  in  business 
schools  are  desirable,  and  one  should  have  fair 
training  in  mathematics  and  bookkeeping  and 
be  a  good  penman.  In  one  banking-house  in- 
vestigated, having  195  employees,  there  were  but 
three  college  graduates,  one  being  the  cashier. 
Banking  men  wish  that  this  condition  were  dif- 
ferent, but  believe  that  it  is  best  for  those  who 
enter  the  occupation  to  do  so  early  in  life.  A  sec- 
ond reason  for  this  is  that  the  average  pay  of  the 
bank  employee  does  not  appeal  to  the  college  man. 
52 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

The  physical  conditions  of  the  occupation  are 
of  the  highest   grade.    There  is    TheBusiness 
moral  danger  to  young  men   on    Conditions 
the  speculative  side  of  the  stock    and  Fature 
and  bond  business,  and  no  broker  is  allowed  to 
receive  orders  from  a  clerk  of  another  firm. 

There  is  keen  competition  among  national 
banks  and  trust  companies  in  bidding  for  de- 
posits, and  in  the  stock  and  bond  business  for 
speculation  and  investment.  There  is  little  com- 
petition  among  savings  banks  and  cooperative 
banks.  These  have  their  lists  of  depositors,  and  in- 
terest rates  are  controlled  by  business  conditions. 

The  business  of  the  future  in  all  lines  will  be 
excellent  because  of  the  vital  connection  of  the 
banking  business  with  the  money  system  of  the 
country,  and  with  all  lines  of  activity  in  the 
financial  and  industrial  world. 

"  Messenger  service  is  the  first  stepping-stone 
in  banking.  A  boy  should  realize  Comments  by 

that  here  lies  his  opportunity.   The    People  in 

,  -ni.  the  Business 

careless  messenger  will  be  a  care- 
less bookkeeper  or  clerk  and  an  unsuccessful 
bank  man." 

53 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 

"  The  chances  of  a  boy  are  better  in  some  re- 
spects in  the  small  bank  than  in  the  large  one. 
In  the  small  bank  one  learns  all  parts  of  the  busi- 
ness and  has  a  much  better  future.  The  success- 
ful men  in  such  firms  are  often  chosen  as  officers 
in  the  large  firms." 

"  Bank  combinations  in  Boston  in  recent  years 
have  given  prominence  to  men  who  had  achieved 
success  in  their  smaller  field,  or  in  their  particular 
form  of  banking  experience." 

"  Service  in  a  bank  is  educational,  even  if  one 
does  not  remain,  in  methods  and  mental  training. 
But  the  person  who  goes  out  in  middle  life  finds  it 
difficult  to  get  a  position  in  the  business  world." 

"  A  boy  should  get  into  the  credit  department 
of  a  banking  house,  where  he  may  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  cashier  or  president." 

"Savings  banks  do  not  generally  take  boys 
direct  from  school.  Age,  maturity,  and  some 
kind  of  business  experience  are  desired." 

"  Investment  in  stocks  and  bonds  is  a  great 
business  and  calls  for  high  intelligence." 

"  Character  comes  first,  for  banking  is  a  busi- 
ness of  continual  trusting  in  men.  Banks  are 
54 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

willing  to  pay  for  honesty,  energy,  brains,  and 
good  judgment." 

"Banking  calls  for  ability  to  judge  human 
nature  and  to  carry  many  details  in  mind,  for 
accurate  and  rapid  thought,  and  for  clear  and 
firm  decision." 

"  Every  consolidation  brings  a  search  for  the 
best  men,  and  every  bank  is  looking  for  the  right 
kind  of  young  man." 

"  There  is  a  good  future  in  the  banking  busi- 
ness in  all  its  departments,  owing  to  the  great 
development  of  this  country  in  industrial  and 
commercial  lines." 

CONFECTIONERY  MANUFACTURE 

This  study  of  the  industry  deals  with  the  man- 
ufacture of  confectionery  under  modern  condi- 
tions in  large  establishments  which  The  industrv 

employ  from  one  hundred  to  one    Conditions 
,       r™       r  ,    and  Future 

thousand   people.   The   facts  and 

conditions  presented  are  in  the  main  such  as  pre- 
vail in  the  general  industry  in  New  England. 

The  health   conditions  of  candy-making  are 
favorable  in  the  large  establishments.  In  the 
55 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

smaller  and  older  ones  unfavorable  conditions 
prevail.  Some  rooms  in  which  candies  are  cooled 
are  kept  regularly  below  normal  temperature, 
while  others,  in  which  mixing  takes  place,  are 
above  normal  temperature.  There  is  some  dan- 
ger from  machinery,  and  discomfort,  if  not  dan- 
ger, from  steam  and  heat. 

In  this  industry,  in  various  factories,  there  are 
employed  from  three  to  six  times  as  many  girls 
as  boys.  The  girls  perform  hand  processes  in 
the  making  of  candies,  and  do  the  work  of  box- 
ing and  labeling.  The  proportion  of  boys  being 
relatively  so  small,  there  is  greater  opportunity 
for  them  to  rise  to  the  responsible  positions. 

The  big  factories  employ  many  boys,  because 
there  is  so  much  work  that  they  can  do,  and  be- 

Pay,  Positions,  cause  men  generally  are  unwilling 
and  Oppor-  to  work  at  the  wages  paid  in  this 
tunities  .  T  .,  r  . 

occupation.  In  the  factories  investi- 
gated, one  half  of  the  male  employees  were  found 
to  be  under  twenty-one  years  of  age. 

Pay  at  the  beginning  varies  from   $3.00  to 
$6.00,  according  to  the  age  of  the  boy  and  the 
particular  work  done.    Boys  act  as  helpers  and 
S6 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

assistants,  shippers,  mixers,  and  boilers ;  the  more 
difficult  processes  are  performed  by  men.  Pay  in 
the  positions  enumerated  varies  from  $3.00,  the 
lowest  sum  paid  at  the  beginning,  to  $12.00. 
The  average  increase  per  week  each  year  is 
$1.25.  Young  men  of  eighteen  or  twenty  years 
who  remain  permanently  in  the  occupation  earn 
from  $12.00  to  $15.00  a  week.  As  foreman  of  a 
room,  a  man  earns  $18.00  or  $20.00  a  week. 

In  the  mixing  processes  and  the  general  in- 
dustry very  many  Italians  are  employed,  because 
of  their  quickness  and  the  adaptability  of  the 
race  to  this  kind  of  work. 

In  some  establishments  a  few  boys  are  regu- 
larly trained  as  apprentices  to  learn  the  entire 
business ;  such  become  foremen,  superintendents, 
traveling  salesmen,  and  managers. 

Boys  begin  at  the  age  of  fourteen  in  this  in- 
dustry. They  must  be  clean,  bright,  quick,  and 
strong.  Most  boys  entering  live  at 
home,  as  is  the  case  in  industries    Qualities  and 
paying   low  wages  at   the  begin-    Training  Re- 
ning.  While  no  special  education 
is  necessary,  one  must  have  the  usual  attendance 
57 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

at  the  grammar  school,  or  present  a  certificate  of 
literacy.  With  some  firms  a  knowledge  of  chem- 
istry is  an  advantage  in  the  manufacturing  de- 
partment. 

It  is  an  industry  in  which  the  educational  re- 
quirement is  small,  and  the  most  important  qual- 
ities desired  are  neatness  and  quickness. 

"  There  is  a  fair  chance  for  the  advancement 

of  a  boy  or  young  man  ;  vacancies 
Comments  of 

People  in  are  regularly   filled   by   selecting 

the  Industry      frQm  employees  who  have  shown 

their  industry  and  ability." 

"From  the  nature  of  the  business  and  the 
number  of  factories  in  and  about  Boston,  the 
chance  for  steady  employment  of  a  fair  per  cent 
of  young  men  who  have  learned  the  work  is 
very  good.  One  should  become  acquainted  with 
all  departments,  serving  some  time  in  each  if  he 
wishes  to  become  master  of  the  occupation  and 
earn  good  pay.  He  should  work  also  in  several 
factories." 

"  It  is  a  good  occupation  for  one  who  masters 
it  thoroughly.  People  outside  have  no  conception 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  candy  business." 
58 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

"Boys  with  push  and  health  may  become  able 
to  earn  a  good  living;  those  with  fair  education 
may  reach  the  higher  positions.  A  boy  must  have 
the  quality  of  perseverance  and  interest  himself 
thoroughly  in  his  work.  There  is  more  demand 
than  ever  for  mental  ability,  for  mind  put  into 
one's  work." 

"A  former  luxury  is  becoming  a  necessity  and 
the  candy-making  business  offers  a  fairly  good 
future  for  a  boy  or  young  man." 

THE  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECT 

Landscape  architecture  deals  with  plans  and 
designs  for  the  laying  out  of  public  and  private 
parks  and  grounds  and  city  planning.  It  is  allied 
toarchitecture,  horticulture,  and  civil  engineering. 

The  health  conditions  of  this  occupation  are 
excellent.  To  his  indoor  work  the  landscape 

architect  adds  the  variety  and  ex- 

The  Profes- 
hilaration  of  working  out-of-doors.    s{on  :  Con- 

He  has  steadily  before  him  an  ideal    djtions  and 

Future 

of  form  and  beauty  in  his  own  un- 
dertakings as  well  as  continual  contact  with  them 
in  the  work  of  other  men. 
59 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

Indoor  work,  which  is  mainly  planning,  writ- 
ing, and  drafting,  runs  quite  steadily  through  the 
year;  outdoor  work  is  done  mainly  in  the  sum- 
mer. Young  men  must  expect  little  if  any  field- 
work  at  the  start. 

To  some  the  only  drawback  in  the  profession 
is  that  of  travel,  a  great  deal  of  which  is  neces- 
sary for  practicing  landscape  architects.  On  the 
other  hand,  steady  confinement  indoors  is  surely 
a  disadvantage. 

In  this  industry  there  is  not  such  keen  com- 
petition as  is  found  in  commercial  lines.  Con- 
tracts calling  for  the  better  grades  of  work  are 
not  awarded  as  the  results  of  solicitation ;  busi- 
ness comes  to  a  firm  mainly  because  of  its  repu- 
tation. Both  landscape  architecture  and  civil 
engineering,  allied  industries,  are  steadily  in- 
creasing their  fields  of  activity.  The  profession 
of  landscape  architecture  has  grown  greatly  in 
recent  years,  yet  there  are  few  large  firms.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  modern  and  promising  of  occu- 
pations. 

While  there  are  neither  many  nor  large  firms 
in  the  country,  in  the  vaults  of  one  firm  investi- 
60 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

gated  lie  copies  of  20,000  drawings  for  work  ac- 
tually done. 

Success  in  landscape  architecture  depends  on 
the  individual  or  firm  that  can  do  good  work  and 
make  it  known  to  the  public. 

The  landscape  architect  bears  the  same  relation 
to  the  landscape  contractor  as  the  architect  bears 
to  the  building  contractor.  The  landscape  con- 
tractor executes  the  plans  and  designs  prepared 
by  the  landscape  architect,  under  the  supervision 
of  his  representative  on  the  grounds,  usually  a 
civil  engineer  or  planting  superintendent. 

Older  terms  for  the  profession  are  "landscape 
engineer "  and  "  landscape  gardener."  Land- 
scape gardening  now  has  to  do  especially  with 
the  planting  side  of  the  profession,  and  boys 
prepare  for  it  by  employment  with  a  landscape 
architect  and  by  field  work. 

Wages  for  boys  entering  this  vocation  range 
from  $4.00  to  $6.00  and  $7.00.  Such  wages  usu- 
ally cover  the  period  of  learning  Pay^Position^ 
the  occupation.  A  young  man  who  and  Oppor- 
has  taken  a  school  course  in  the 
profession  may  enter  at  $10.00  or  more.  While 
61 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

learning,  a  draftsman  receives  about  the  same 
pay  as  in  architectural  offices,  from  $9.00  to 
$12.00  a  week,  and  a  planting  department  clerk 
$12.00  per  week;  an  assistant  in  the  field  from 
$8.00  to  $10.00,  and  a  superintendent  of  outdoor 
work  $15.00. 

Beyond  those  positions  when  young  men  have 
served  a  period  of  learning  of  four  or  five  years, 
pay  increases  steadily,  quite  equaling  that  re- 
ceived in  building  architecture,  and  averaging 
from  $1000  to  $1800  per  year.  As  in  all  lines  of 
business,  advancement  and  success  depend  upon 
personal  ability,  thoroughness  of  training,  and 
business  conditions. 

Pay  in  the  profession,  while  generally  stated 
by  employer  and  employee  in  the  figures  given 
above,  is  usually  computed  by  the  hour,  espe- 
cially for  indoor  work. 

The  usual  age  for  entering  is  sixteen  years ; 

a  boy   younger   than   this  would 

Qualities  and     have    no    opportunity  except    as 

Training  Re-  office  boy  Qne  must  expect  to 
quired 

give  the   years   between   sixteen 

and  twenty  to  learning  the  profession,  earning 
62 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

only  enough   for  living  expenses.    Most  boys 
found  in  such  an  occupation  live  at  home. 

One  should  have  ability  in  drawing,  taste  in 
design,  an  accurate  mind,  good  sense,  and  good 
eyesight.  A  boy  should  be  strong,  of  good  habits, 
and  of  normal  physique. 

A  high-school  education  is  the  least  require- 
ment. Most  boys  entering  landscape  architecture 
in  Boston  and  vicinity  come  from  the  Mechanic 
Arts  High  School,  the  Institute  of  Technology, 
Harvard  University,  Bussey  Institute,  and  the 
Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute.  One  must  be 
well  trained  in  mathematics,  surveying,  and  draft- 
ing. A  knowledge  of  plants  is  an  advantage  in 
all  cases,  and  with  some  firms  an  essential. 

Many  students  use  their  school  or  college  va- 
cation for  studying  the  profession  with  a  land- 
scape architect,  thus  getting  practical  field-work 
to  supplement  their  school  courses. 

"  It  is  a  profession  demanding  hard  work  with 
iong  hours  and   much   painstaking  service  for 
moderate  financial  returns.    Most    Comments  of 
who  go  into  it  do  so  for  love  of  the    People  in  the 
occupation."  Industry 

63 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 

"  The  work  is  in  part  of  an  advisory  nature, 
necessitating  investigation,  which  is  the  oppor- 
tunity of  young  men  They  draw  up  plans  and 
direct  the  execution  of  them  by  contractors." 

"Teach  a  boy  drawing,  no  matter  what  he 
can  do  or  what  occupation  he  may  enter.  It 
trains  the  mind  and  hand  and  is  of  help  always." 

"  Conditions  have  changed  greatly  in  recent 
years.  The  Metropolitan  Commissions  pay  a 
higher  price  for  a  shorter  season  and  sometimes 
draw  young  men  away  from  architects'  offices." 

"  Better  be  a  first-rate  grocer  than  a  second- 
rate  landscape  architect.  One  must  think  care- 
fully before  entering  this  profession,  so  that  he 
may  not  put  in  three  or  four  years  and  find  him- 
self not  fitted  for  it." 

"This  occupation  opens  the  door  to  a  con- 
genial work  and  gives  one  broad  views  and  in- 
terests in  life." 

One  of  the  methods  adopted  by  the  Boston 
Vocation  Bureau  to  further  interest  in  the  work 
has  been  a  series  of  informal  dinner  conferences 
attended  by  leading  business  men  and  educators. 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

The  heads  of  some  of  the  largest  industrial  enter- 
prises in  the  state  contributed  experiences  of  great 
value  and  by  their  interest  showed  that  vocational 
guidance  is  something  which  concerns  not  only 
the  boy  and  the  girl,  the  family  and  the  school, 
but  commerce  and  industry  quite  as  much. 

Courses  of  lectures  have  been  given  in  the 
public  school  system  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  at 
Harvard  University,  Boston  University,  Tufts 
College,  and  elsewhere  dealing  with  the  occupa- 
tions and  their  requirements.  The  following  par- 
tial announcement  of  a  course  given  at  the  Civic 
Service  House  will  show  the  nature  of  the  talks. 


WHAT  ARE  YOU  FITTING  YOURSELF  FOR? 
Vocation  Talks  by  Experts 

Sunday  evening  free  and  frank  discussions  for  the  benefit  of  all  who 
are  wrestling  with  the  problems  of  choosing  a  vocation. 


THE   TEACHER. 
THE   ARCHITECT. 
THE  JOURNALIST. 

THE   LAWYER. 
COMMERCIAL  CAREERS. 
PHILANTHROPIC   WORK. 
INDUSTRIAL   FOREMEN. 
A  CAREER    IN   BUSINESS. 
A   CAREER    IN    AGRICUL- 
TURE. 


THE  NEW  PROFESSION  IN 

FORESTRY. 

THE   DOCTOR. 

SPECIAL   FIELDS   FOR 

WOMEN. 
CAREERS  IN  ART,  MUSIC, 

AND    DRAMA. 

SCIENTIFIC    PURSUITS. 

POLITICS   AND   PUBLIC 

SERVICE. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

In  the  audiences  which  attended  this  course 
there  were  parents  and  teachers  who  found  this 
an  opportunity  to  study  the  nature  of  various 
occupations,  young  people  who  came  to  hear 
about  the  particular  vocation  they  had  in  view 
for  themselves ;  and  a  number  of  young  and  old 
who  were  laboring  with  the  problem  of  choice. 

In  Germany  for  many  years,  and  in  Scotland, 
the  law  has  recognized  the  need  of  intelligent 
direction  of  the  young.  The  German  system  of 
industrial  training  presupposes  a  profound  in- 
terest in  the  wage-earning  career  of  youth,  and 
though  in  some  respects  the  social  organization 
of  that  country  makes  its  regulative  provisions 
impossible  in  ours,  there  is  much  to  be  learned 
from  its  intelligent  and  thorough-going  methods 
of  dealing  with  its  young  people. 

In  his  Dundee  address  on  "  Unemployment  " 
two  years  ago,  and  in  the  House  of  Commons 
address  on  Labor  Exchanges,  in  1909,  the  Rt. 
Hon.  Winston  Churchill  emphasized  the  need 
of  guidance  for  the  vast  majority  of  England's 
youth  cast  adrift  in  the  odd  occupations  open  to 
boys  of  fourteen  years.  The  consequences  of 
66 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

present-day  conditions  may  be  measured  by  the 
grim  fact,  that  out  of  the  unemployed  applying 
for  help  under  the  Unemployed  Workman  Act, 
no  less  than  twenty-eight  per  cent  are  between 
twenty  and  thirty  years  of  age.  "No  boy  or  girl 
ought  to  be  treated  merely  as  cheap  labor," 
says  Mr.  Churchill.  "  Up  to  eighteen  years  of 
age,  every  boy  and  girl  in  this  country  should, 
as  in  the  old  days  of  apprenticeship,  be  learning 
a  trade  as  well  as  earning  a  living."  The  Labor 
Exchange,  Mr.  Churchill  conceives  as  an  agency 
for  guiding  the  new  generation  into  suitable, 
promising,  and  permanent  employment,  and  for 
diverting  them  from  over-stocked  or  declining 
industries.  These  exchanges  are  to  cooperate 
with  the  vocation  bureaus  of  the  various  educa- 
tion authorities  that  are  coming  into  existence  in 
Scotland  and  in  England. 

A  clause  in  the  Scotch  Education  Act  of  1908 
permits  school  authorities  to  maintain  or  to  com- 
bine "with  other  bodies  to  maintain  any  agency 
for  collecting  and  distributing  information  as  to 
employments  open  to  children  on  leaving  school." 

Munich  has  a  special  department  in  its  Labor 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

Exchange  set  aside  for  children,  and  those  other 
than  apprentices  are  dealt  with  in  the  unskilled 
section.  Mr.  Frederick  Keeling  in  his  pamphlet 
on  the  Labor  Exchange1  describes  the  method 
by  which  the  cooperation  of  the  school  and  the 
Exchange  is  secured.  The  head-master  assem- 
bles all  the  children  who  are  about  to  leave 
school  and  impresses  on  them  the  importance  of 
making  a  careful  choice  of  an  occupation.  They 
are  then  given  forms  to  fill  out  with  the  consent 
of  their  parents  and  with  the  advice  of  their 
teacher.  After  these  are  returned  they  are  given 
forms  on  which  they  can  apply  for  positions  and 
which  they  have  to  take  to  the  Exchange  in  order 
to  see  if  a  post  is  vacant.  Visits  are  often  obvi- 
ated by  messages  from  the  Exchange  to  the 
school.  The  preliminary  steps  are  taken  soon 
enough  to  enable  the  children  in  most  cases  to 
have  a  situation  ready  for  them  the  moment  they 
leave  school.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Munich 
continuation  schools  serve  as  effective  place- 
ment agencies  for  their  own  girls  and  boys. 

1  The  Labor  Exchange  in  Relation  to  Boy  and  Girl  Labor,  Fred- 
erick Keeling.  P.  S.  King  &  Son,  Westminster,  London,  1910. 

68 


BEGINNINGS   IN  GUIDANCE 

While  the  securing  of  suitable  employment  is 
the  chief  object  of  the  Labor  Exchange,  and  al- 
though educational  readjustment  is  not  in  its 
programme,  the  Exchange  has,  nevertheless, 
contributed  important  evidence  as  to  the  need 
of  vocational  training  and  guidance  before  the 
period  of  employment  is  at  hand. 

The  English  Apprenticeship  and  Skilled  Em- 
ployment Committees  have  done  valuable  work, 
though  necessarily  on  a  small  scale,  in  the  field 
of  employment.  Their  indirect  influence,  how- 
ever, on  the  movement  for  vocational  training  and 
the  success  of  their  supervision  over  the  progress 
of  the  children  placed  has  been  considerable. 
Excellent  handbooks  have  been  published  under 
the  auspices  of  these  committees,  the  most  use- 
ful of  which  have  been  the  pamphlets  :  "  Trades 
for  London  Boys  and  How  to  Enter  Them,"  and 
"Trades  for  London  Girls  and  How  to  Enter 
Them." 1  These  pamphlets  cover  such  topics  as 
the  method  of  organizing  vocational  aid  associa- 
tions, the  considerations  of  health  and  prospects 

1  Apprenticeship  and  Skilled  Employment  Association,  Deni- 
son  House,  Vauxhall  Bridge  Road,  London. 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

in  the  trades,  the  various  openings  for  boys  and 
girls,  and  the  opportunities  for  further  training. 
The  London  County  Council  and  Glasgow 
School  Board  have  made  use  of  thousands  of 
copies  of  these  handbooks. 

A  score  or  more  of  affiliated  committees  in  the 
city  of  London  and  in  the  provinces  are  in  active 
relations  with  the  central  association  for  Appren- 
ticeship and  Skilled  Employment,  each  commit- 
tee working  locally  for  the  vocational  welfare  of 
the  boys  and  girls  in  its  vicinity.  Reports  of  such 
committees  as  the  Hampstead  Apprenticeship 
and  Skilled  Employment  Committee  show  in  de- 
tail the  neighborhood  treatment  of  the  vocational 
needs  of  young  people.  Through  the  joint  action 
of  these  committees  relations  have  been  estab- 
lished with  trade-union  secretaries  and  with  the 
officials  responsible  for  the  establishment  of  a 
national  system  of  labor  exchanges.  A  confer- 
ence has  been  held  with  the  Prime  Minister  and 
other  cabinet  ministers  in  which  the  experience 
of  those  interested  in  the  problem  of  boy  labor 
was  presented  with  suggestions  for  improvement 
through  the  adoption  of  a  system  of  compulsory 
70 


BEGINNINGS  IN  GUIDANCE 

attendance  at  continuation  schools  up  to  17  years 
of  age,  a  reduction  of  working  hours,  a  develop- 
ment of  full-time  day  schools,  the  raising  of  the 
school  age,  and  the  modification  of  the  present 
elementary  school  curriculum.  The  Board  of 
Education  and  the  London  County  Council  have 
shown  noteworthy  interest  in  the  work  of  these 
voluntary  organizations.  The  Children's  Care 
Committees  of  the  Council  are  instructed  to  ad- 
vise parents  as  to  the  work  to  be  taken  up  by 
their  children  on  leaving  school. 

The  extension  of  such  vocational  information 
committees  must  do  much  to  arouse  the  interest 
of  parents  and  children  in  the  future  of  the  boys 
and  girls  after  they  leave  school.  The  follow-up 
work  and  the  friendly  contact  with  the  young 
workers  cannot  fail  to  serve  as  a  check  to  drift- 
ing and  waste.  Probably  the  most  valuable  results 
of  the  apprenticeship  committees'  work  in  Lon- 
don has  been  its  furnishing  continual  evidence 
of  the  necessity  for  the  readjustment  of  the  work- 
ing day  of  young  people  so  as  to  enable  them 
to  attend  continuation  classes  during  certain 
hours  of  the  afternoon  and  the  early  evening. 


IV 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  IN  THE  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS 

OF  all  community  workers  the  school-teacher  is 
the  most  frequently  called  on  to  counsel  with 
parents  and  with  children  as  to  the  aptitudes  of 
the  boy  and  girl  and  their  probable  future.  Ex- 
pert knowledge  of  a  difficult  nature  is  expected 
of  the  overworked  teacher,  but  there  is  little 
opportunity  to  acquire  it.  In  the  boys'  club,  the 
social  settlement,  or  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation, the  man  or  woman  competent  to  give 
vocational  counsel  is  eagerly  sought  for,  and  this 
service  is  energetically  secured,  oftentimes  at 
large  expense.  In  the  school  system,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  permit  the  child's  inevitable  adviser  to 
remain  unequipped  for  the  best  performance  of 
this  vital  duty. 

A  change,  however,  is  taking  place.    In  the 
school  systems  of  several  cities,  organization  is  re- 
placing our  present  haphazard  efforts  at  guidance. 
72 


GUIDANCE   IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

A  conspicuous  chart  at  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion display  in  the  New  York  Budget  Exhibit  of 
1910  presents  the  need  for  vocational  guidance 
as  follows :  — 

NEED  FOR  A  VOCATION  BUREAU 
Directing  young  boys  and  girls  into  careers 
most  useful  to  themselves  and  to  the  community 
is  second  in  importance  only  to  school  training. 
Such  direction  requires  continuous  study  of 
the   needs  of  the  community  and  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  capacity  of  \hzpupils. 

To  secure  this  direction  there  must  be  a  bu- 
reau to  cooperate  with  the  teachers  in  the  public 
schools. 

For  several  years  the  initiative  of  certain  New 
York  school-teachers  and  officials  has  pointed 
the  way  to  such  guidance.  Miss  Julia  Richman, 
district  superintendent  of  schools,  on  the  lower 
East  Side  of  New  York,  has  been  employing  a 
young  woman  who  devotes  all  her  time  to  finding 
positions  suitable  for  untrained  boys  and  girls 
who  must  leave  school  at  fourteen.  Application 
is  made  by  the  children  direct  to  this  vocational 
adviser,  who  interviews  each  applicant,  ascertains 
73 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

his  or  her  powers,  limitations,  and  desires,  and 
guides  ambition  into  definite  channels.  She  visits 
employers,  looks  after  the  physical  conditions 
under  which  the  children  would  be  employed,  and 
forms  an  estimate  of  the  personal  influence  of 
the  foreman  or  employer  with  whom  the  child 
may  come  in  contact. 

Where  she  is  in  doubt  about  a  place  she  does 
not  recommend  it.  The  children  come  back  to 
her  at  stated  evening  office  hours  for  conferences 
about  the  work  they  are  doing  and  the  progress 
they  are  making. 

At  the  Wadleigh  High  School  for  Girls,  in 
New  York,  a  group  of  public-spirited  men  and 
women  engaged  a  teacher  two  years  ago  to  ad- 
vise with  the  girls  as  to  their  individual  voca- 
tional problems,  the  occupations  open  to  them, 
and  the  further  opportunities  for  vocational 
training.  A  valuable  work  for  some  years  past 
has  been  that  of  the  Students'  Aid  Committee 
of  the  High  School  Teachers'  Association,  the 
chairman  of  which  is  Mr.  E.  W.  Weaver,  of  the 
Boys'  High  School  in  Brooklyn.  In  this  work, 
the  high-school  students  are  encouraged  before 
74 


GUIDANCE  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

leaving  school  to  define  their  purposes  in  life 
and  to  consider  the  occupations  best  suited  to 
realize  them.  To  this  end  vocational  bulletins 
have  been  prepared  for  the  senior  classes  and 
their  parents.  The  Association,  by  printing  use- 
ful pamphlets  on  the  occupations,  the  wages  in 
various  employments,  and  on  special  training 
required  for  them,  has  given  an  impetus  to  voca- 
tional help  in  the  school  system.  Under  Mr. 
Weaver's  editorship  a  dozen  or  more  leaflets 
have  been  published,  with  such  titles  as  "  Oppor- 
tunities for  Boys  in  Machine  Shops,"  "Choosing 
a  Career,"  "Directing  Young  People  in  the 
Choice  of  a  Vocation,"  and  "The  Vocational  Ad- 
justment of  the  Children  of  the  Public  Schools." 
Of  special  interest  has  been  the  guidance  work 
for  immigrant  youth  at  the  Educational  Alli- 
ance, by  Dr.  Paul  Abelson,  of  the  DeWitt  Clin- 
ton High  School  of  New  York,  whose  knowledge 
of  agricultural  as  well  as  of  urban  occupations 
has  been  of  peculiar  service  to  the  perplexed 
youth  of  a  tenement  locality. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  vocational  guid- 
ance movement  in  the  Boston  schools  has  been 
75 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

described.  At  the  first  national  conference  on 
vocational  guidance,  held  in  Boston  in  November, 
1910,  invitations  to  which  were  issued  by  the 
Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  and  the  Vocation 
Bureau  of  Boston,  organized  vocational  help  in  the 
school  system  received  a  support  which  promises 
much  for  the  future  of  this  work.  In  half  a  dozen 
Massachusetts  cities  and  towns,  vocation  bureau 
committees,  representing  school  and  business 
organizations,  have  been  formed,  and  in  some 
the  work  of  advising  young  people  has  been 
started. 

One  of  the  most  thorough  systems  of  school 
guidance  is  to  be  found  in  the  Educational  In- 
formation and  Employment  Bureaus  of  the  Edin- 
burgh (Scotland)  School  Board.  Specimens  of 
its  plans  and  bulletins  are  here  given,  as  they 
illustrate  how  a  school  vocation  bureau  works. 

Acting  under  the  provision  of  the  new  Scotch 
Education  Act,  which  grants  school  boards  the 
power  to  incur  expenditure  for  guidance  bureaus, 
the  Edinburgh  School  Board  in  1908  called  a 
conference  at  which  were  represented  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce,  various  labor  and  employers' 


GUIDANCE  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

organizations,  churches  and  educational  institu- 
tions. Mrs.  Ogilvie  Gordon,  of  Aberdeen,  an 
efficient  pioneer  in  this  movement,  took  a  lead- 
ing part,  and  contributed  largely  to  the  plan  of 
work,  which  was  finally  adopted  as  follows: — 

EDINBURGH  SCHOOL  BOARD 
Educational  Information  and  Employment  Bureau 

Scheme  for  the  Establishment  of  an  Educational  In- 
formation and  Employment  Bureau^  adopted  by  the 
Board,  2Oth  July^  1908. 

1.  The  Bureau  shall  be  placed  under  the  charge 
of  a  Standing  Committee  of  the  Board  to  be  called 
the  Educational  Information  and  Employment  Bu- 
reau Committee,  and  to  consist  of  seven  members 
of  the  School  Board. 

2.  There  shall  be  associated  with  the  Committee, 
an  Advisory  Council,  consisting  of  the  Members  of 
the  School  Board  and  such  representatives  of  public 
bodies  and  trade  associations  as  the  Board  may  from 
time  to  time  coopt,  due  regard  being  had  to  securing 
representation  of   the  principal  trades  of  women's 
occupations. 

3.  The    Advisory   Council    as   representing    the 
various  trades  and  occupations  related  to  the  Bureau 
shall  advise  the  Committee  and  the  Director  of  the 
Bureau  on  all  matters  connected  with  the  education 

77 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

required  for  such  trades  and  occupations,  and  on  the 
conditions  of  employment. 

4.  Accommodation  for  the  Bureau  shall  be  found 
in  the  School  Board  Offices. 

5.  The  School  Board  shall  appoint  a  Director  who, 
subject  to  the  Committee,  shall  organize  and  super- 
intend the  Bureau.    Generally  his  duties  shall  be  as 
follows :  — 

(a)  To  interview  boys  and  girls  and  their  parents 

or  guardians,  and  advise  them  with  regard 
to  further  educational  courses  and  most 
suitable  occupations. 

(b)  To  prepare  leaflets  and  pamphlets  or  tabulated 

matter  giving  information  to  the  scholars 
about  continuation  work. 

(c)  To  keep  in  touch  with  the  general  require- 

ments of  employers  and  revise  from  time 
to  time  the  statistics  about  employment. 

(d)  To  prepare  and  revise  periodically  statements 

of  the  trades  and  industries  of  the  district, 
with  rates  of  wages  and  conditions  of  em- 
ployment. 

(<?)  To  keep  a  record  of  vacancies  intimated  by 
employers,  and  to  arrange  for  suitable  can- 
didates having  an  opportunity  of  applying 
for  such  vacancies. 

(f)  To  report  periodically  on  the  work  of  the 
Bureau. 

78 


GUIDANCE   IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

If  an  organizer  for  the  Continuation  Classes  be 
appointed,  he  might  also  act  as  Director  of  the 
Bureau. 

Note.  —  As  soon  as  the  Committee  and  the  Director  have 
been  appointed,  notice  should  be  sent  to  all  head-masters, 
employers,  etc.,  explaining  the  purposes  of  the  Bureau  and 
the  conditions  for  utilizing  its  services.  Head-masters 
should  be  provided  with  printed  forms  to  be  given  to  the 
outgoing  scholars  on  which  shall  be  entered  the  standard 
of  education  attained,  habits  of  punctuality  and  attendance, 
and  any  general  information  that  would  be  useful,  and  a 
duplicate  shall  be  sent  to  the  Bureau.  The  Bureau  shall  be 
open  free  of  charge  to  parents  and  pupils  wishing  informa- 
tion as  to  education  or  employment. 

A  large  advisory  council  has  been  appointed 
to  cooperate  with  the  bureau,  two  delegates  being 
sent  by  such  bodies  as  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, the  Building  Trades  Association,  the 
Master  Printers,  the  National  Union  of  Women 
Workers,  and  unions  of  Engineers,  Bakers,  Book- 
Binders,  Cabinet-Makers,  Joiners  and  Masons. 
A  number  of  prominent  employers  and  educators 
are  also  on  the  council.  In  the  Bureau's  plan  for 
organizing  vocational  information  it  ascertains 
facts  about  the  industries,  trades,  and  professions 
of  the  district,  the  nature  of  the  local  demands 
for  young  workers,  the  qualifications  required  in 
79 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

the  various  occupations,  the  conditions  of  ap- 
prenticeship for  each  trade,  the  beginner's 
weekly  wage,  and  the  possibilities  of  promotion. 
Particular  effort  is  made  to  retain  the  pupils  in 
the  schools,  to  trace  the  progress  of  boys  and 
girls  from  fourteen  to  seventeen  who  cannot  con- 
tinue their  schooling,  and  to  secure  the  em- 
ployer's cooperation  in  establishing  needed  con- 
tinuation schools.  The  following  circular  is  sent 
to  parents  of  children  leaving  school,  and  is  simi- 
lar to  those  sent  to  the  head-masters  and  to  em- 
ployers. 

EDINBURGH   SCHOOL  BOARD 

DEAR  SIR  OR  MADAM, 

The  Members  of  the  Board  desire  to  call  your 
special  attention  to  the  steps  which  they  are  taking 
to  guide  and  advise  young  people  regarding  their  fu- 
ture careers  in  life,  and  to  provide  for  them  the  sys- 
tematic training  on  commercial  or  industrial  lines 
that  will  best  fit  them  for  the  occupation  they  elect 
to  follow. 

(i)  Educational  Information  and  Employment  Bureau 

The  Education  Department  has  recently  pointed 
out  that  it  has  been  matter  of  frequent  complaint 
80 


GUIDANCE  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

that  through  want  of  information  or  proper  guidance, 
children,  on  leaving  school,  are  apt  to  take  up  casual 
employments,  which,  though  remunerative  for  the 
moment,  afford  no  real  preparation  for  earning  a 
living  in  later  life.  The  temptation  to  put  a  child 
into  the  first  opening  that  presents  itself  is  often 
very  great.  Due  regard  is  not  always  paid  to  the 
capacities  of  the  boys  and  girls  concerned,  with  the 
result  that  many  take  up  work  which  affords  no  train- 
ing and  is  without  prospect,  while  many  others  are 
forced  into  trades  or  professions  for  which  they  are 
unsuited  by  temperament  and  education,  and  for 
which  they  consequently  acquire  a  dislike.  The  re- 
sult is  a  large  amount  of  waste  to  the  community  at 
large  and  misery  to  the  individuals  concerned. 

The  Board  are  anxious  to  cooperate  with  parents 
in  putting  an  end  to  this  state  of  matters,  and  ac- 
cordingly, they  have  established  an  Educational  In- 
formation and  Employment  Bureau  whose  functions 
may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows  :  — 

(1)  To  supply  information  with  regard  to  the  qual- 

ifications most  required  in  the  various  oc- 
cupations of  the  City,  the  rates  of  wages, 
and  the  conditions  of  employment. 

(2)  To  give  information  about  the  technical  and 

commercial  continuation  classes  having  re- 
lation to  particular  trades  and  industries. 

(3)  To  advise  parents  regarding  the  occupations 

81 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

for  which  their  sons  and  daughters  are  most 
fitted  when  they  leave  school. 
(4)  To  keep  a  record  of  vacancies  intimated  by 
employers,  and  to  arrange  for  suitable  can- 
didates having  an  opportunity  of  applying 
for  such  vacancies. 

(2)  Continuation  Classes 

Boys  and  girls  who  have  gone  through  the  work  of 
the  Day  School  soon  forget  much  that  they  have 
learned  if  they  have  no  opportunity  of  extending  the 
knowledge  which  they  have  already  gained.  The  Board 
would  therefore  impress  on  parents  the  importance  of 
their  children  joining  a  Continuation  School  as  soon 
as  possible  after  leaving  the  Day  School. 

As  you  are  probably  aware,  children  can  now  leave 
school  only  at  certain  fixed  dates.  In  Edinburgh  these 
are  ist  March  and  ist  September.  On  i5th  July  of  this 
year  over  2000  pupils  may  terminate  their  day  school 
career. 

The  close  of  the  Day  School  course  is  probably 
the  most  critical  period  in  the  life  of  children.  There 
is  grave  danger  of  educational  and  moral  waste  if 
they  are  suddenly  set  entirely  free  from  discipline  and 
instruction.  Between  the  ages  of  14  and  18  careful 
supervision  and  training  are  essential  to  the  forma- 
tion of  character,  the  creation  of  a  sense  of  personal 
and  civic  duty,  and  the  production  of  skilled  and 
efficient  workmen.  It  is  of  the  highest  importance, 
82 


GUIDANCE  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

then,  that  all  parents  should  realize  that  there  must 
be  no  break  between  the  Day  School  and  the  Con- 
tinuation School. 

For  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the 
Continuation  Classes  and  of  rendering  the  instruction 
more  directly  practical,  the  subjects  (other  than  ele- 
mentary) have  been  grouped  into  courses,  such  as 
English,  Commercial,  Technical,  and  Art  Courses  for 
Boys  and  Girls,  and  Domestic  Courses  for  Girls 
only.  These  specialized  courses,  which  have  been 
allocated  among  the  different  Schools  in  the  various 
parts  of  the  city,  should  prove  a  valuable  aid  to  pu- 
pils who  enter  upon  an  industrial  or  commercial 
pursuit. 

A  prospectus  giving  full  information  with  regard  to 
the  various  courses  and  subjects  of  study  will  be  for- 
warded for  your  perusal  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks, 
and  the  Board  trust  that  you  will  do  your  utmost 
to  persuade  any  young  people  under  your  care  to 
enrol  in  one  or  other  of  the  Continuation  Classes. 

The  Headmaster  of  the  Day  School  will  be  pleased 
to  grant  you  an  interview  on  the  subject  before  the 
close  of  the  present  session,  or  during  the  month  of 
September.  Further  details  and  advice  regarding  the 
courses  of  study  most  suited  to  prepare  Boys  and 
Girls  for  their  prospective  occupations  may  be  had 
by  parents  or  intending  students  on  application  to  the 
Director  of  the  Educational  Information  and  Employ- 
ment Bureau. 

83 


VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE 

The  not  distant  future  will  see  an  active  ex- 
tension of  vocational  guidance  in  the  schools. 
Conscientious  teachers  desire  to  be  of  service  to 
the  boys  and  girls  and  welcome  every  opportu- 
nity which  strengthens  them  for  increasing  use- 
fulness. Whether  as  paid  or  unpaid  advisers, 
there  will  be  an  increase,  both  inside  and  outside 
the  school  system,  of  vocational  counselors.  In 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  notably 
that  of  Boston,  where  Mr.  Frank  P.  Speare  has 
for  several  years  been  actively  interested  in  sys- 
tematic vocational  counsel,  in  church  education 
committees,  university  extension  courses,  neigh- 
borhood centres,  as  well  as  in  the  school  systems, 
significant  beginnings  in  vocational  guidance  are 
in  process  of  organization.  Expert  counsel  will 
be  rare,  however,  and  errors  common,  but  the 
obligation  to  deal  with  the  present  situation  is 
insistent.  Earnest,  humble,  open-minded,  and 
energetic  effort  to  equip  one's  self  or  a  system 
for  better  guidance  than  now  obtains  is  impera- 
tive. 

In  the  very  effort  sincerely  to  meet  the  present 
need  of  intelligent  guidance  there  is  good.  The 


GUIDANCE  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 

cooperation  between  the  world  of  work  and 
school  life,  the  teacher  and  the  employer,  the 
parent  and  the  counse'or  cannot  fail  of  genuine 
helpfulness,  of  corrective  value,  and  of  mutual 
service. 


V 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

OBVIOUSLY  the  carrying  out  of  a  plan  for  voca- 
tional guidance  must  centre  in  some  responsible 
and  competent  individual.  A  committee  or  an 
association  can  do  much  in  stimulating  public 
opinion  and  in  the  gathering  of  resources.  But 
such  work  done  well  requires  that  it  be  the  spe- 
cial business,  indeed  the  life-work,  of  some  quali- 
fied man  or  woman. 

Undoubtedly,  a  new  profession,  that  of  the 
vocational  counselor,  is  developing.  The  condi- 
tions of  the  time  call  for  it,  and  whatever  the 
volunteer  may  do  in  inspiring  young  people  for 
the  serviceable  life,  it  is  certain  that  professional 
responsibility  can  alone  achieve  the  hard-earned 
results  of  this  difficult  work.  The  duties  of  the 
person  charged  with  the  management  of  a  voca- 
tion bureau  are  many.  They  cover  a  wide  range 
of  activity  and  relationship.  They  call  for  per- 
sistent study,  investigation,  and  energy. 
86 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

The  work  of  guidance  is,  at  best,  delicate  and 
difficult.  Helping  to  develop  purpose,  to  light  the 
pathway  of  pursuits,  and  to  shape  the  careers  of 
the  doubting,  the  eager,  and  the  ambitious  is  a 
task  that  calls  for  exceptional  qualities  of  intelli- 
gence and  consecration.  In  order  that  the  move- 
ment for  vocational  guidance  may  not  suffer,  it 
is  important  that  standards  and  ideals  for  this 
work  be  maintained  at  the  highest  possible  level. 
The  best  service  in  the  community  should  be 
enlisted  in  the  work.  Fortunately,  the  idea  of 
vocational  assistance  to  young  people  appeals 
to  all  thinking  men  and  women,  and  it  should 
not  be  hard  with  definite  plan  and  energetic 
purpose  to  secure  the  largest  measure  of  cooper- 
ation. 

Now  it  is  essential  for  any  community  under- 
taking the  work  of  guidance  to  set  before  them- 
selves the  steps  in  the  furtherance  of  the  enter- 
prise. In  a  subsequent  chapter  will  be  discussed 
some  of  the  dangers  and  pitfalls  which  may 
attend  the  work  of  vocational  guidance.  The 
purpose  here  is  to  outline  some  details  of  organ- 
ization and  the  functions  of  the  vocational  coun- 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

selor,  executive  director,  or  whatever  may  be  the 
name  for  the  person  in  charge. 

The  first  suggestion  to  those  about  to  open  a 
city  or  school  vocation  bureau  is  —  go  slowly. 
If  the  right  foundations  are  not  laid  before 
considerable  work  in  counseling  is  begun,  it  is 
certain  that  the  best  kind  of  work  cannot  be 
done.  At  least  a  year  should  be  devoted  to  a 
preliminary  investigation  of  local  resources,  of 
the  environment,  and  of  the  social  and  vocational 
problems  of  the  children.  Frequent  conferences 
should  be  held,  attended  by  the  representatives 
of  all  the  interests  that  may  be  expected  to  co- 
operate. The  business  man,  the  manufacturer, 
the  labor-union  official,  the  school-teacher,  the 
truant  officer,  and  the  social  worker  are  all  needed 
in  such  conferences.  It  should  be  made  the  duty 
of  some  committee  with  a  well-paid  secretary,  who 
may  be  regarded  as  in  training  for  the  eventual 
position  of  vocational  counselor,  to  make  a  careful 
canvass  of  the  professional  and  wage-earning  op- 
portunities in  the  town,  city,  or  county,  and  get 
into  personal  relation  with  working  children  and 
their  parents  in  order  to  understand  their  prob- 
88 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

lems.  Chapters  of  this  vocational  survey  may 
be  made  the  topics  for  discussion  at  regular 
meetings.  One  of  the  main  results  of  these  con- 
ferences will  be  a  consensus  of  opinion  as  to 
what  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  proposed  vocation 
bureau.  In  the  beginning  views  will  differ,  and 
until  a  definite  conclusion  is  reached  the  exec- 
utive cannot  be  anything  but  confused  and 
hampered  in  his  work.  Some  will  aim  for  an  edu- 
cational programme,  some  for  an  apprenticeship 
arrangement  in  local  industries,  and  others  again 
for  the  placing  of  boys  and  girls  in  shops  and 
stores.  All  these  views  represent  elements  of 
value  to  the  project,  but  time  and  patient  discus- 
sion alone  can  work  out  a  programme  that  will 
receive  general  assent. 

It  may  happen  that  the  differences  of  view- 
points are  almost  irreconcilable,  one  party  aim- 
ing for  the  short  haul  of  immediate  results,  and 
another  for  the  longer  haul  of  social  and  educa- 
tional readjustment.  No  little  skill  will  be  re- 
quired to  shape  a  work  which,  while  serving 
urgent  and  immediate  needs,  yets  points  unhesi- 
tatingly toward  the  infinitely  more  important 

89 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

task  of  laboring  for  the  right  conditions,  the  right 
education,  and  the  public  sentiment  that  will  deal 
constructively  with  the  vocational  interests  of 
young  people  before  they  become  problems. 

Little  may  be  expected  from  a  work  which  be- 
gins in  a  spirit  of  destructive  criticism.  Voca- 
tional interest  in  youth  is  not  a  new  thing.  What 
is  new,  however,  is  the  intelligent  energy  with 
which  that  problem  is  now  being  attacked  in 
various  places.  No  one  element  is  responsible 
for  present  conditions  ;  least  of  all  may  the  teach- 
ers be  charged  with  neglect,  for  they  have  not 
been  given  the  opportunity  to  equip  themselves 
in  a  thorough  way  for  the  task  of  vocational 
assistance.  No  body  of  men  and  women  will  be 
found  more  responsive  than  the  teaching  force  in 
any  locality ;  but  obviously  those  charged  with 
the  responsibilities  of  guidance  must  be  given 
leisure  and  the  resources  to  prepare  themselves 
adequately. 

The  person  selected  to  conduct  a  vocation 
bureau  must  possess  executive  ability,  initiative, 
resourcefulness,  and  an  education  which  com- 
bines both  academic  and  industrial  knowledge. 
90 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

A  varied  experience  as  a  manual  worker  and  in 
commercial  and  professional  work  is  a  good  re- 
commendation. It  may  well  be  that  a  working 
man  or  woman  who  has  earned  a  college  educa- 
tion will  be  found  best  qualified.  It  is  also  likely 
that  some  one  occupying  a  responsible  position 
in  a  business  or  educational  institution  and  pos- 
sessing a  keen  interest  in  the  problems  of  youth 
may  be  of  the  type  desired  and  should  be  in- 
duced to  accept  the  appointment.  The  method 
used  by  the  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  in 
selecting  men  as  members  or  paid  secretaries 
for  committees  is  suggestive.  A  terse  and  defi- 
nite plan  is  laid  out  for  the  committee  under  con- 
sideration. The  type  of  man  desired  and  a  list 
of  qualifications  that  he  should  possess  are 
agreed  upon.  The  names  suggested  are  then 
marked  according  to  the  degree  and  special  fit- 
ness for  the  service  in  question.  A  blank  form 
made  up  for  this  purpose  is  used,  and  those 
who  are  given  the  highest  rating  are  invited  to 
serve. 

The  type  of  person  best  adapted  for  the  posi- 
tion of  vocational  director  can   only  be  deter- 
91 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

mined  by  the  residents  of  each  locality.  A  rural 
community,  the  county,  or  a  small  town  will  prob- 
ably call  for  qualifications  different  from  those 
which  a  city  vocation  bureau  requires.  The  pre- 
dominant vocational  interests  of  a  community 
.  are  an  important  element  in  determining  the 
type  of  director.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
the  committee  which  chooses  its  executive  is 
doing  a  work  of  vocational  guidance,  and  it  must 
apply,  in  a  sense,  the  principles  which  are  to 
guide  their  own  executive  in  the  work. 

The  argument  for  caution  and  careful  plan- 
ning is  not  intended  to  discourage  the  under- 
taking of  actual  counseling.  As  early  as 
practicable  interviews  may  be  granted  to  a  small 
number  day  by  day.  Perhaps  the  data  at  hand 
are  insufficient  for  good  counseling.  This  fact 
should  be  made  known  to  the  applicant.  Never- 
theless, service  is  always  rendered  by  stimulat- 
ing one  to  think  aloud  about  one's  own  prob- 
lems. The  chief  value  of  any  interview  lies  in 
the  self-disclosures  and  the  reactions  of  the  ap- 
plicant. 

The  relations  between  the  counselor  and  the 
92 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

applicant  cannot  be  formal,  official,  or  temporary. 
They  must  be  friendly,  intimate,  and  more  or  less 
continuous.  What  makes  the  appointment  of  vo- 
cational directors  or  counselors  in  schools,  settle- 
ments, or  like  organizations  so  desirable  is  the 
opportunity  for  long  contact  with  the  individuals. 
A  single  interview  is  seldom  sufficient  for  ser- 
vice that  is  worth  while.  Parents  and  teachers 
who  enjoy  years  of  opportunity  for  studying  the 
make-up  of  a  boy  or  girl  find  it  hard  enough  to 
ascertain  the  vocational  bent  of  the  child.  Pro- 
longed, earnest  effort  on  the  part  of  the  counselor 
is  imperative,  and  a  corresponding  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  applicant,  or  the  service  fails  of 
value. 

Of  prime  importance  is  the  economic  equip- 
ment of  the  counselor  and  the  Bureau.  Guess- 
work and  vague  generalizations  about  social 
problems,  the  conditions  of  employment,  and 
occupational  facts,  will  discredit  the  work.  An 
essential  element  in  the  counselor's  service  is 
intimate  knowledge  of  what  is  going  on  in  the 
store,  factory,  and  office.  He  must  investigate, 
weigh,  interpret,  and  apply  vocational  facts. 
93 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

At  present  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  psycho- 
logical tests  can  be  used  to  advantage  by  the 
counselor.  Clues  of  value  may  be  found  in  the 
elementary  tests  for  vision,  hearing,  muscular 
sense,  association  time,  and  the  quickness  of 
perception.  Laboratory  psychology,  however,  is 
not  far  enough  advanced  to  enable  one  to  fathom 
bent  and  aptitude.  The  common-sense  tests  of 
experience  are  more  reliable  guides.  A  color- 
blind boy  cannot  become  a  locomotive  engineer, 
nor  can  a  deaf  girl  be  a  stenographer,  though  she 
may  well  be  a  copyist  and  typewriter.  Medical 
inspection  for  mental  and  physical  defects  is  use- 
ful and  should  be  suggested  to  the  applicant. 
Too  free  a  use  of  laboratory  methods  and  appa- 
ratus in  connection  with  bureau  work,  at  the 
present  time,  will  confuse  and  mislead,  and  the 
applicant  who  becomes  excited  and  apprehensive 
is  not  in  the  right  frame  of  mind  for  the  relation- 
ship desired.  The  fact  must  not  be  lost  sight  of 
that  the  vocation  bureau  is  neither  a  laboratory 
nor  a  clinic. 

A  thorough  acquaintance  with  local  and  other 
resources  is  needed  by  the  counselor,  and  his 
94 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

facility  in  connecting  the  appropriate  resources 
with  the  needs  of  the  individual  applicant  will 
count  for  much  in  his  work.  The  Bureau  can 
only  in  the  course  of  years  and  with  a  large  ex- 
penditure of  money  become  the  repository  for 
every  kind  of  information  that  may  be  called  for. 
An  important  part  of  the  counselor's  programme 
is  the  skillful  utilization  of  existing  sources  of  in- 
formation and  service.  There  are  men  and  women 
in  almost  every  occupation  who  would  be  willing 
to  cooperate  with  the  bureau,  serving  as  special 
advisers  and  perhaps  employers  for  selected  in- 
dividuals. It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  Bu- 
reau director  can  master  the  important  details  of 
every  pursuit.  Thus  it  may  be  necessary  to  con- 
sult an  architect  or  physician  with  reference  to 
the  conditions  or  changing  demands  in  their  re- 
spective callings.  Problems  may  arise  with  refer- 
ence to  the  ability  or  the  circumstances  of  some 
particular  young  man  or  young  woman,  and  the 
help  of  a  representative  of  the  profession  in  ques- 
tion, acting  as  a  vocational  "  big  brother,"  will 
prove  of  great  value. 

The  guidance  of  youth  in  vocations  cannot 
95 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

confine  its  scope  to  the  mechanical  or  com- 
mercial alone.  The  multiplication  of  vocational 
schools,  including  those  in  medicine,  dentistry 
and  law ;  the  inferior  standards  and  the  pecuni- 
ary motives  of  many  of  them;  and  the  over- 
crowding of  the  liberal  professions  by  the  unfit 
and  the  ill-equipped,  give  rise  to  questions  of  the 
gravest  character  in  advising  as  to  these  careers. 
Prof.  Felix  Adler  has  said  that  one  of  the  diffi- 
culties he  has  encountered  in  advising  some 
young  men  was  in  impressing  them  with  the  gap 
between  their  admiration  and  their  endowments 
for  a  vocation.  The  counselor's  duty  of  stimulat- 
ing is  great,  but  it  is  primarily  his  business  to 
deal  with  facts,  and  he  must  be  guided  by  a  sense 
of  responsibility  for  the  advice  he  gives. 

There  is  a  considerable  literature  which  the 
counselor  must  familiarize  himself  with,  and  much 
of  it  he  may  prescribe  for  reading  and  study  by 
the  applicant.  Excellent  vocational  handbooks 
such  as  "Vocations  for  the  Trained  Woman," 
published  by  the  Woman's  Educational  and  In- 
dustrial Union  of  Boston,  "  Trades  for  London 
Boys,"  and  "Trades  for  London  Girls"  (already 
96 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

referred  to  in  this  book),  Mrs.  Ogilvie  Gor- 
don's "  Handbook  of  Employments,"  Dr.  Charles 
R.  Richards'  Report  to  the  New  York  State 
Department  of  Labor  in  1908,  and  others  may 
be  found  in  the  public  libraries  and  might 
well  be  part  of  every  school  library.  Unfortu- 
nately, we  have  not  as  yet  in  this  country  a  series 
of  cheap  and  practical  vocational  primers  dealing 
with  the  occupations  similar  to  those  published 
in  various  German  cities.  One  series  of  tiny 
booklets  published  in  Leipzig,  and  costing  not 
more  than  a  few  cents  apiece,  covers  almost 
one  hundred  different  vocations,  —  the  chemist, 
the  tinsmith,  the  teacher,  the  merchant,  the 
cook,  the  waiter,  the  druggist,  the  farmer,  the 
sailor,  the  tapestry-maker,  and  many  others. 
"What  Am  I  To  Be?"  is  the  title  of  this 
series. 

Before  long  an  awakened  interest  in  vital  voca- 
tional information  may  yet  regard  such  booklets 
as  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  school  and  college  cur- 
riculum. Until  the  educational  authorities  take 
up  this  task  it  will  remain  the  privilege  of  far- 
sighted  philanthropy  or  private  enterprise  to 
97 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

make  available  to  all  such  practical  knowledge  of 
the  occupations. 

The  duties  of  the  counselor  outlined  in  this 
chapter  must  impress  one  as  sufficient  to  absorb 
the  working  hours  of  any  individual.  One  of  the 
very  first  provisions  must  be  for  the  training  of 
assistants  in  research  and  advising.  These  may 
be  paid  or  volunteer  workers.  The  experiences 
gained  in  a  vocation  bureau  are  so  valuable  that 
persons  of  superior  qualifications  may  be  inter- 
ested to  enlist  in  this  tangible  social  service. 

Eventually  the  fruits  of  private  initiative  in 
vocational  guidance  must  lead  to  the  establishing 
of  school  and  public  vocation  bureaus  and  to 
courses  of  preparation  for  this  specialized  service 
in  our  normal  and  professional  schools. 
/  In  the  fall  of  1910,  a  normal  course  for  school 
j  counselors  was  opened  in  the  Boston  English 
High  School,  under  the  direction  of  the  Vocation 
Bureau,  and  continued  through  out  the  school  year. 
It  presented  to  the  teacher-advisers  the  principles 
and  problems  involved  in  vocational  guidance, 
and  by  means  of  talks  by  representative  business 
men,  employers,  manufacturers,  and  professional 


THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

men  and  women,  brought  into  the  public  school 
a  useful  working  knowledge  of  the  many  oppor- 
tunities and  occupations  open  to  Boston  boys 
and  girls. 

A  question  that  will  constantly  arise  in  voca- 
tion bureau  work  is  its  relation  to  employment 
and  to  employment  agencies.  Our  discussion 
thus  far  should  have  made  clear  the  fundamental 
aims  of  a  vocation  bureau.  An  office  for  indi- 
vidual counseling  and  for  studying  the  problems 
of  social  and  educational  readjustment  will  need 
very  large  resources  to  superadd  an  employment 
office.  This  latter  is  no  small  business,  and 
requires  far  more  investigation  and  study  than 
are  ordinarily  given.  While  a  vocation  bureau 
gladly  finds  many  incidental  occasions  to  suggest 
openings  for  its  applicants,  it  will  fail  of  its  pur- 
pose if  its  constructive  functions  become  side- 
tracked. A  separate  department  or  organization 
is  necessary  for  considerable  employment  work, 
but  there  can  be  and  should  be  the  closest  co- 
operation between  a  vocation  bureau  and  place- 
ment work  of  any  kind.  Employment  managers 
of  large  stores  and  factories  should  be  kept  in 
99 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

touch  with  the  vocation  bureau,  not  only  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who,  under  proper  conditions, 
may  be  referred  to  them  for  work,  but  chiefly 
because  the  adoption  of  vocation  bureau  methods 
and  ideals  in  industry  may  ultimately  become 
the  bureau's  largest  contribution  to  social  wel- 
fare. 


VI 

SOME  CAUTIONS  IN  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

THE  work  of  vocational  guidance  cannot  reason- 
ably be  expected  to  go  on  free  of  error  and  mis- 
hap. Differences  of  opinion  as  to  what  such  work 
should  be,  as  to  what  are  its  proper  aims  and 
how  to  carry  them  out,  will  give  varied  phases  to 
the  movement.  Local  application  of  the  bureau 
idea  will  differ  in  different  localities,  and  doubt- 
less, there  will  be  much  to  learn  and  much  to 
undo  before  a  sound  basis  is  attained. 

Not  found  wanting  will  be  the  exploiter  and 
the  charlatan,  advertising  such  guidance  as  the 
new  key  to  success.  Every  community  will  have 
to  be  on  guard  against  vocational  guidance  for 
profit. 

At  what  age  shall  vocational  suggestion  and 
guidance  begin  in  the  school?  Prof.  Paul  H. 
Hanus,  who  was  Chairman  of  the  Massachusetts 
Commission  on  Industrial  Education,  has  with 
reference  to  vocational  training  answered  the 
101 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

question  also  for  vocational  guidance.  The  years 
up  to  fourteen,  he  maintains,  should  be  enriched 
with  all  that  a  broad  and  liberal  curriculum  can 
give.  From  fourteen  to  sixteen  years,  differenti- 
ation, not  specialization,  in  school  work  may  take 
place  along  the  lines  of  the  probable  occupa- 
tions of  the  boys  who  are  not  going  to  a  classical 
high  school  or  college,  and  with  regard  to  the 
predominant  industries  of  the  locality.  This  in 
order  to  develop  general  vocational  intelligence. 
Prior  to  the  fourteenth  year,  however,  it  is  de- 
sirable that  school  work  include  vocational  en- 
lightenment, for  example,  talks  on  familiar  trades 
and  professions,  excursions  by  classes  or  groups 
of  children  to  shops,  stores,  offices,  and  vocational 
schools,  and  manual  training. 

Applying  these  suggestions  to  guidance  in  the 
elementary  schools,  there  is  first  a  fundamental 
need  of  stimulating  the  ideal  of  vocational  pur- 
pose. School  work  inspired  by  the  "  Life-career 
motive"  is  the  ideal  of  the  progressive  educator. 
As  thousands  of  children  must  go  directly  to 
work  from  the  grammar  school,  the  vocational 
director  or  the  school  counselor,  where  they  are 
102 


SOME  CAUTIONS 

appointed  (as  in  Boston),  should  get  into  touch 
with  the  boys  and  girls  and  their  parents  in 
order  to  work  out  gradually  the  question  of  the 
best  possible  occupation.  No  small  part  of  this 
work  will  be  in  the  endeavor  to  find  a  way  to 
continue  the  schooling  of  these  boys  and  girls. 

The  vocational  decision,  when  made,  should  re- 
present chiefly  the  conclusion  reached  by  the 
boy  or  girl,  young  man  or  woman,  or  whoever 
the  individual  advised  may  be.  Decision  is  not 
the  business  of  the  counselor,  but  that  of  the  ap- 
plicant. The  counselor  is  there  for  suggestion, 
inspiration,  and  cooperation.  The  over-zealous 
school  counselor  who  "prescribes  "  vocations  is 
quite  likely  to  commit  the  error  of  forcing  prob- 
lems on  children  prematurely.  He  should  also  be 
on  guard  against  mistaking  what  is  probably  a 
child's  play  and  make-believe  for  a  vocational 
bent. 

Without  agenuine  personal  touch,  the  counsel- 
or's work  with  the  applicant  is  not  of  the  best.  Hu- 
man beings,  not  "cases,"  are  before  him,  and  there- 
fore a  mechanical  treatment  of  bureau  problems 
is  intolerable.  If  the  possession  of  accurate  vo- 
103 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

cational  information  is  desirable,  no  less  so  is  the 
giving  it  without  bias.  A  counselor  prejudiced 
in  favor  of  a  particular  line  of  pursuits,  be  they 
industrial,  academic  or  what  not,  is  vitiating  the 
value  of  his  services.  No  vocation  bureau  can 
fulfill  its  mission  which  leans  toward  one  or  an- 
other of  the  departments  of  human  endeavor. 
Its  business  is  to  deal  with  facts,  impartially, 
honestly  and  vigorously.  To  be  suspected  of  one- 
sided sympathy  is  to  lose  a  chance  for  large 
community  service. 

An  even  more  serious  indictment  would  be 
the  dispensing  with  the  programme  of  analytical 
work  on  the  part  of  the  applicant,  and  converting 
the  bureau  into  an  office  for  a  short  cut  to  jobs. 
Some  employers  will  be  found  ready  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  any  laxity  in  the  bureau's  standards. 
When  a  vocation  bureau  degenerates  into  an 
agency  merely  for  supplying  young  people  to 
employers,  the  time  has  come  to  close  it  up. 
As  has  been  already  suggested,  the  placing  of 
young  people  in  employment  calls  for  most 
careful  investigation  and  organization.  Without 
a  system  of  supervision,  without  a  plan  for  the 
104 


SOME  CAUTIONS 

definite  training  of  every  child  it  helps  send  into 
uninstructive  employment,  and  without  a  defi- 
nite educational  agreement  with  every  employer 
who  is  thus  served,  the  vocation  bureau  with 
other  than  incidental  employment  features  must 
only  intensify  existing  evil  conditions  of  juvenile 
labor. 

Every  adviser  has  become  familiar  with  the 
types  who  seek  occult  assistance.  They  are 
morbidly  introspective.  The  relation  to  their 
fellows  and  to  their  work  is  not  normal.  An  un- 
wholesome selfishness  distinguishes  them.  The 
personal  data  sheets  or  printed  list  of  personal 
questions,  such  as  the  counselor  may  prepare  for 
the  applicant,  cannot  be  used  automatically,  and 
with  reference  to  the  type  of  applicant  here  in 
question  they  will  usually  prove  worthless.  Per- 
sonal analysis  is  like  a  drug  habit  with  these 
people,  and  before  vocational  suggestion  of  value 
can  be  given,  the  counselor  will  probably  find  it 
necessary  to  deal  frankly  with  their  mental  and 
emotional  make-up.  The  vocation  bureau  is  not 
equipped  for  service  in  the  field  of  abnormal 
psychology.  Its  rigorous  common-sense  methods 
105 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

should  be  sufficient  to  deter  the  coming  of  those 
who  need  other  than  the  Bureau's  help.  The 
bureau  must  ever  be  on  guard  against  dabbling 
in  subjects  foreign  to  its  powers. 

In  dealing  with  the  life  problems  of  young 
people  a  sane  conservatism  in  the  methods  of 
analysis  must  prevail,  a  sharp  sense  of  responsi- 
bility controlling  the  work  of  the  vocational  di- 
rector. The  methods  he  uses  and  the  suggestions 
he  makes  are  all  fraught  with  serious  conse- 
quences. No  other  work  calls  more  insistently 
for  good  sense  and  careful  judgment.  Misguid- 
ance is  a  constant  possibility  in  bureau  work. 
With  a  number  of  counselors  in  the  field,  and 
with  the  extension  of  this  service  through  both 
public  and  private  endeavor  everywhere,  the  dan- 
gers multiply.  Good  intentions  cannot  excuse  the 
lack  of  care  and  adequate  equipment  on  the  part 
of  the  advisers. 

The  applicant  himself  is  a  factor  in  the  bu- 
reau's liability  to  disservice.  To  answer  a  list  of 
personal  questions,  either  orally  or  in  writing, 
honestly  and  satisfactorily,  is  a  difficult  process. 
Not  many  people  can  face  themselves  objectively. 
106 


SOME  CAUTIONS 

Inability  as  well  as  unwillingness  to  do  so  may 
be  the  reason.  Exploring  the  vocational  possi- 
bilities of  a  troubled  or  discouraged  applicant 
calls  for  a  large  expenditure  of  thought  and  en- 
ergy. No  progress  can  be  made  if  the  applicant 
does  not  meet  the  director's  exertions  in  a  coop- 
erative spirit.  The  margin  for  error  and  misjudg- 
ment  is  large  at  best,  and  the  applicant  must 
attend  faithfully  to  the  reading,  the  investigating, 
and  the  written  work  required  of  him. 

There  is  no  royal  road  to  infallible  guidance. 
Pretentious  claims  do  not  belong  to  the  legiti- 
mate vocation  bureau.  What  may  be  confidently 
expected  during  the  early  years  of  this  work  is 
mitigation  of  the  prevailing  anarchy  during  the 
decisive  years  of  school  and  occupational  changes 
through  energetic  application  of  science  and 
sympathy  to  this  problem.  To  sum  up  the  princi- 
pal dangers  which  the  movement  may  encounter, 
attention  is  directed  against  forcing  children  into 
premature  seriousness,  wholesale  counseling,  too 
little  personal  relationship,  absence  of  research 
work,  superficial  suggestion,  vocational  bias,  job- 
finding  instead  of  constructive  social  service,  ex- 
107 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

ploitation,  pretentiousness,  and  inferior  equip- 
ment of  the  executive  and  the  bureau.  Mistakes 
are  inevitable  in  this  endeavor  to  help  the  coming 
generation  to  find  itself,  but  a  high  standard  of 
service  and  of  social  responsibility  can  alone  in- 
sure against  their  too  frequent  repetition. 


VII 

SOCIAL    AND     ECONOMIC     GAINS    THROUGH 
VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

THE  Vocational  Guidance  movement  belongs 
to  those  efforts  of  our  time  making  for  the  en- 
hancement of  individual  and  social  life.  Common 
action  has  become  more  easy ;  social  insight  and 
the  will  to  serve  have  increased.  The  movement 
for  husbanding  the  serving  powers  of  youth  is  a 
practical  expression  of  the  deeper  motives  under- 
lying the  conservation  enterprises  of  our  day. 

Closer  contact  with  the  life  of  the  struggling, 
and  revelations  of  their  capacity  for  better  voca- 
tional purposes  than  many  now  serve  strengthen 
the  conviction  that  the  field  of  employment  in 
even  its  humblest  aspect  will  not  long  remain 
untouched  by  the  reconstructive  hand  of  our  gen- 
eration. Perhaps  a  deeper  discernment  will  dis- 
close the  "one  talent  which  is  death  to  hide"  as 
the  possession  of  even  the  humblest,  and  we 
shall  no  longer  find  contentment  in  a  quiescent 
109 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

pity  for  the  unsuccessful  by  the  fulsome  bestowal 
of  honors  on  those  who  have  won  out.  It  is  a  sad 
fatalism  which  regards  our  waste  of  human  ma- 
terial as  necessary  to  the  cultivation  of  the  cap- 
tains and  leaders  of  men.  A  finer  understanding 
of  human  possibilities  refutes  this  elemental  no- 
tion. 

The  vocations  themselves  are  undergoing  pro- 
found changes.  New  ideals  of  their  functions  are 
prophetic  of  the  demands  they  will  make  upon 
their  future  practitioners.  The  new  opportunities 
belong  to  those  who  can  apprehend  the  changing 
situation. 

Preventive  medicine  offers  departments  of  ser- 
vice as  varied  as  society  itself,  and  specialists  in 
social  health  will  find  modern  life  eager  for  their 
ministrations.  The  profession  of  law,  conserva- 
tive though  it  be,  is  calling  for  the  lawyer  with 
intelligence  for  constructive  social  legislation  and 
the  skill  to  apply  adequate  legal  principles  to 
vexed  industrial  relations;  the  architect  and  the 
builder  are  needed  in  a  housing  solution  for  mod- 
ern urban  congestion  ;  and  the  real-estate  opera- 
tor and  the  transportation  expert  are  called  upon 
no 


SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  GAINS 

to  contribute  their  foresight  and  their  skill  to  the 
working  out  of  a  city  plan.  Whatever  overcrowd- 
ing there  may  be  in  the  conventional  grooves  of 
the  vocations,  none  has  as  yet  taken  place  in  their 
latest  and  socialized  form.  It  is  the  privilege  of 
the  vocational  counselor  to  watch  for  these  new 
outlets  in  vocational  service,  and  to  guide  the  fit 
into  promising  avenues  of  usefulness. 

A  young  Bohemian,  undergraduate  in  a  large 
university,  was  preparing  himself  for  the  law. 
His  father  is  a  Pennsylvania  coal-miner,  and  dur- 
ing the  summer  the  young  man  helped  him  in 
the  colliery,  earning  enough  in  that  way  to  pay 
for  his  board  and  tuition  during  the  college  year. 
He  came  to  the  Vocation  Bureau  of  Boston  with 
questions  as  to  what  prospects  for  successful 
practice  among  Americans  a  young  foreigner 
like  himself  could  expect.  It  was  clear  that  this 
intelligent  and  energetic  young  man  would  get 
along,  and  he  was  reassured  on  this  point,  but  it 
seemed  important  to  remind  him  that  very  few 
of  his  nationality  had  achieved  the  advantages  of 
life  in  a  great  New  England  university,  that  his 
people  had  few  representatives  indeed  who  could 
in 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

interpret  them  to  Americans  and  America  t( 
them,  and  that  his  largest  success  would  lie  ai 
a  well-trained  lawyer  in  not  detaching  himsel 
from  his  own,  but  in  serving  both  them  and  th( 
Americans  in  the  opportunities  that  would  surel) 
be  his. 

Signs  are  not  wanting  in  the  liberal  profes 
sions,  in  manufacturing,  in  business,  and  indeec 
in  most  occupations,  of  a  growing  band  of  prac 
tical  idealists  who  conceive  their  pursuits  ir 
terms  of  community  service  as  well  as  of  liveli 
hood. 

They  are  giving  new  life  to  old  callings  anc 
are  stimulating  the  youth  of  our  land  to  ne^ 
measurements  of  achievement.  We  have  beer 
for  so  long  awed  by  the  wonderful  subdivisior 
and  specialization  in  the  vocations  that  we  have 
forgotten  the  most  impressive  fact  about  them 
This  is  their  social  interdependence.  As  we  be 
come  more  sensitive  to  social  organization,  w< 
perceive  how  superficial  is  the  barrier  of  voca 
tion.  The  scientific  classification  of  flowers  anc 
trees  does  not  make  nature  less  an  organic  whole 
So  the  promotion  of  special  schools  and  training 

112 


SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  GAINS 

courses  for  the  development  of  skill  in  particular 
vocations  cannot  make  less  real  the  fraternity  of 
workers.  Zones  of  influence  and  consequences 
reach  far  beyond  the  view  of  the  individual 
worker  who  causes  them.  A  fundamental  value 
in  liberal  vocational  training  is  the  sense  it  brings 
to  the  student  of  his  relationships.  We  pursue 
our  callings  in  forgetfulness  of  the  essential 
"team  play"  in  working  life,  and  the  vocational 
guidance  which  brings  to  light  one's  interplay  of 
work  with  that  of  his  fellows,  contributes  toward 
lifting  the  daily  stint  above  the  commonplace. 

The  demand  upon  the  vocations  each  for  its  j 
distinctive  social  contribution  carries  with  it  a 
corresponding  ideal  for  the  vocational  career  as 
a  whole.  We  have  been  proceeding  on  an  un- 
sound assumption  that  for  the  many  the  dynamic 
period  of  youthful  growth  is  intended  for  a  static 
period  of  struggle  for  the  daily  bread.  The  young 
worker's  pathetic  snatches  at  growth  throughout 
long  days  of  drudgery,  his  surreptitious  reading 
of  a  book  at  the  bench,  the  day-dreaming  and 
the  cravings  for  self-realization,  the  petty  infrac- 
tions of  rules,  continually  illuminate  the  resist- 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

ance  of  young  human  nature  against  the  prospect 
of  stagnation. 

Only  a  conception  of  working  life  as  continuing 
education  can  appease  the  God-given  hungers  of 
youth.  This  is  not  fancy.  We  find  successful 
business  houses  proud  of  the  types  of  men  and 
women  they  develop  by  the  educational  oppor- 
tunities they  afford  their  employees,  and  this 
not  as  charity  but  as  fundamental  good  business. 
Developing  the  intelligence  of  the  employees 
and  satisfying  their  instinct  for  educational  ex- 
perience in  the  work  they  are  doing  has  become 
the  self-assumed  duty  of  the  most  enlightened 
employers.  The  socially  imaginative  business 
man,  manufacturer,  and  professional  man  are 
joining  hands  with  the  progressive  educator  in 
the  call  for  more  educational  returns  from  the 
wage-earning  career. 

Of  what  use  are  the  sacrifices  made  in  the 
training  and  guidance  of  youth  if  the  subsequent 
conditions  of  employment  nullify  their  value  ? 
The  fitting  of  youth  for  appropriate  life  pursuits 
cannot  proceed  without  a  corresponding  fitness 
on  the  part  of  the  occupations  themselves.  The 
114 


SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  GAINS 

readjustments  in  education  will  have  to  go  hand 
in  hand  with  like  readjustments  in  the  avenues 
of  occupation.  Work  and  school  cannot  be  safely 
kept  apart  in  a  democracy.  Each  has  a  vital 
meaning  to  the  other,  and  they  must  share  in 
common  the  burden  of  fitting  the  coming  gen- 
eration for  its  best  achievements.  Alike  they 
must  share  this  vision  and  this  purpose,  or  else 
vocational  chaos  will  continue  its  disastrous 
course. 

Society  willingly  invests  its  young  blood  in  the 
world  of  wage-earning,  and  in  return  it  asks  co- 
operation in  protecting  its  most  valuable  assets. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  working  life  under 
proper  conditions  is  youth's  best  discipline.  The 
demand  upon  the  vocations  for  social  cooperation 
is  not  made  in  a  spirit  unappreciative  of  their 
character-building  possibilities.  Rather  is  this 
social  challenge  to  the  occupations  a  full  recogni- 
tion of  the  community's  loss  in  the  present  abyss 
between  life  and  a  livelihood. 

To  these  socially  efficient  ideals,  therefore, — 
the  enriching  of  school  life  with  vocational  pur- 
pose and  the  enriching  of  working  life  with  edu- 


VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

cational  purpose — the  vocational  guidance  move- 
ment addresses  itself.  Whatever  this  movement 
may  in  the  course  of  its  experience  propose  to 
the  people  for  social  correction,  there  will  not  be 
found  wanting  the  clear  aim  to  serve  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  vocation  quite  as  much  as  those 
of  the  worker.  Education,  the  professions,  indus- 
try and  commerce  all  belong  to  our  children. 
To  conserve  their  inheritance  and  to  lift  them 
to  their  future  opportunities,  the  friends  of  the 
vocational  guidance  movement  join  those  who 
labor  for  youth  and  a  sound  citizenship. 


REFERENCES 

THE  following  publications  consulted  in  the 
preparation  of  this  book  may  be  of  interest  to 
students  of  vocational  guidance  and  training,  and 
may  well  serve  as  the  nucleus  of  a  school  voca- 
tion library. 

REPORTS: 

ANNUAL  REPORT  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  LABOR 
STATISTICS,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1909. 

REPORT  OF  THE  APPRENTICESHIP  AND  SKILLED 
EMPLOYMENT  ASSOCIATION,  FOR  1909,  36  Deni- 
son  House,  Vauxhall  Bridge,  London. 

REPORT  OF  THE  CONSULTATIVE  COMMITTEE  ON 
ATTENDANCE,  COMPULSORY  OR  OTHERWISE,  AT 
CONTINUATION  SCHOOLS,  Wyman  &  Sons,  Lon- 
don, 1909. 

REPORT  OF  THE  HEMPSTEAD  APPRENTICESHIP 
AND  SKILLED  EMPLOYMENT  COMMITTEE,  15 
Lithos  Road,  Finchley  Road,  Hampstead. 

REPORTS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  SOCIETY  FOR  THE 
PROMOTION  OF  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION,  Office 
of  the  Secretary,  20  West  44th  Street,  New  York 
City. 

REPORT  OF  THE  ROYAL  COMMISSION  ON  THE  POOR 
LAWS  AND  THE  RELIEF  OF  DISTRESS,  Wyman  & 
Sons,  London,  1909. 

117 


REFERENCES 

REPORTS  AND  BULLETINS  OF  THE  U.  S.  BUREAU 
OF  LABOR. 

REPORTS  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER  OF  EDUCATION, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

BULLETINS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LABOUR  OF- 
FICE, London. 
VOCATIONAL   GUIDANCE: 

HANDBOOK  OF  EMPLOYMENTS,  Mrs.  Ogilvie  Gor- 
don^ Aberdeen,  Scotland. 

THE  OCCUPATIONS  OF  COLLEGE  GRADUATES,  Dean 
Frederick  P.  Keppell,  Columbia  College,  "  Educa- 
tional Review,"  December,  1910. 

CHOOSING  A  VOCATION,  Prof.  Frank  Parsons, 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1909. 

VOCATIONS  FOR  THE  TRAINED  WOMAN,  OTHER 
THAN  TEACHING,  Women's  Educational  &  Indus- 
trial Union,  264  Boylston  Street,  Boston,  1910. 

TRADES  FOR  LONDON  BOYS,    *>  Longmans,   Green 

TRADES  FOR  LONDON  GIRLS,  \  &  Co.,  New  York- 
Two  series  of  booklets  published   in  Leipzig,  one 
published  by  C.  Bange,  entitled  "  MEIN  KUXFTIGER 
BERUF  " ;  the  other  by  Albert  Otto  Paul,  entitled 
"WAS  WERDE  ICH?" 

VOCATIONAL    SCHOOL    CHARTS  of    the  Women's 

Municipal  League,  Boston. 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION: 

EDUCATION  FOR  EFFICIENCY,  Dr.  E.  Davenport, 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston. 

THE  WORKER  AND  THE  STATE,  Arthur  Dean,  Cen- 
tury Co.,  New  York,  1910. 

EDUCATION  FOR  EFFICIENCY,  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot> 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston. 
118 


REFERENCES 

VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION,  Prof.  John  M.  Gillette, 

American  Book  Co.,  New  York. 
BEGINNINGS    IN    INDUSTRIAL    EDUCATION,   Prof. 

Paul  H.  Hanus,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston. 
THE  LABOR  EXCHANGE  IN  RELATION  TO  BOY  AND 

GIRL  LABOR,  Frederic  Keeling,  P.  S.  King  &  Son, 

London. 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION,  THE  PROBLEM  OF,  Dr. 

David  Snedden,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  Boston. 
EDUCATIONAL  FOUNDATIONS  OF  TRADE  AND  IN- 
DUSTRY, Fabian  Ware,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New 

York,  1901. 

GENERAL: 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  YOUTH  AND  THE  CITY  STREETS, 
Jane  Addams,  Chapter  V.  The  Macmillan  Co. 
New  York,  1910. 

DEMOCRACY  AND  SOCIAL  ETHICS,  Jane  Addams^ 
Chapter  V.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

SOCIOLOGICAL  PAPERS,  Vol.  3,  chapter  on  the  Pro- 
blem of  the  Unemployed,  by  W.  H.  Beveridge  and 
others.  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1907. 

UNEMPLOYMENT,  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chap.  VI  and  IX. 

LIFE  AND  LABOR  OF  THE  PEOPLE,  Charles  Booth, 
(Vol.  V  and  VI),  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York. 

THE  TOWN  CHILD,  Reginald  A.  Bray,  T.  Fisher 
Unwin,  London. 

STUDIES  OF  BOY  LIFE  IN  OUR  CITIES,  edited  by 
E.J.  Urwick,  Dent  &  Co.,  London,  1904.  Chapter 
on  the  Boy  and  his  Work,  /.  G.  Cloete. 

EFFICIENCY,  Harrington  Emerson,  The  Engineer- 
ing Magazine,  New  York,  1909. 

119 


REFERENCES 

WORK,  WAGES,  AND  PROFITS,  H.  L.  Gantt,  The 

Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1910. 

SELF-MEASUREMENT,  William  DeWitt  Hyde,  B.  W. 
Huebsch,  New  York,  1908. 

CONTINUATION  SCHOOLS  IN  ENGLAND  AND  ELSE- 
WHERE, edited  by  Prof.  M.  E.  Sadler,  Introduction, 
and  Chap.  XV,  on  APPRENTICESHIP  AND  SKILLED 
EMPLOYMENT  COMMITTEES,  by  H.  Winifred 
Jevons.  University  Press,  Manchester,  England. 

WASTED  LIVES,  Frank  John  Leslie.  C.  Tinling&  Co., 
Liverpool,  1910. 

GUIDE  TO  READING  IN  SOCIAL  ETHICS  AND  ALLIED 
SUBJECTS,  by  Teachers  in  Harvard  University^ 
Chapter  III,  Social  Service,  and  Chapter  IV,  The 
Ethics  of  Modern  Industry.  Edited  by  Francis 
G.  Peabody,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY  (Part  II,  Chap.  X,  The 
Entrance  to  a  Trade),  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb, 
Longmans,  Green  Co.,  New  York. 


OUTLINE 

CHOICE  OF  LIFE-WORK  AND  ITS  DIFFICULTIES 

1.  A  Suggestion  from  Franklin's  Autobiography     .  i 

2.  The  Natural  Advisers  of  Youth I 

3.  Present-Day  Social  Conditions 2 

4.  The  Efficiency  Engineer 2 

5.  The  Young  Work-Seekers 3 

6.  What  Choosing  a  Vocation  Requires     ....  4 

7.  The  Range  of  Choice 5 

8.  City  Youth  and  Vocational  Suggestion  ....  6 

9.  The  Tenement  Children 6 

10.  Vocational  Advising 8 

11.  An  East  Side  Illustration 9 

VOCATIONAL  CHAOS  AND  SOME  OF  ITS 
CONSEQUENCES 

1.  England's  Experience 12 

2.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor 

Laws 13 

3.  Other  Testimony 14 

4.  The  Wasted  Years 16 

5.  The  Unemployables 20 

6.  The  Problem  of  Vocational  Training    ....  20 

7.  The  Problem  of  Vocational  Guidance  ....  22 

8.  The  Problem  of  the  Occupation 23 

BEGINNINGS  IN  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

1.  President  Eliot  on  the  "  Life-Career  Motive  "     .  25 

2,  Choice  of  Further  Schooling  :  two  illustrations     26 

121 


OUTLINE 

3.  Beginning  of  the  Vocation  Bureau  .....  29 

4.  Prof.  Frank  Parsons's  Work 30 

5.  Boston  School  Committee  and  the  Vocation  Bu- 

reau      32 

6.  Communication  from  the  Vocation  Bureau    .     .  32 

7.  Report  of  the  School  Vocation  Committee    .     .  35 

8.  The  School  Vocational  Record  Card    ....  42 

9.  The  Girls'  Trade  Education  League 43 

10.  The  Boston  Home  and  School  Association  .     .  44 

11.  Vocations  for  Boston  Boys 47 

12.  Three  Vocational  Bulletins 51 

13.  Courses  on  the  Vocations 65 

14.  Vocational  Guidance  Abroad 66 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  IN  THE  PUBLIC 
SCHOOLS 

1.  The  New  York  Budget  Exhibit 73 

2.  Guidance  on  the  East  Side  of  New  York  ...  73 

3.  Advising  in  the  Wadleigh  High  School  for  Girls  74 

4.  Bulletins  of  the  High  School  Teachers'  Asso- 

ciation    75 

5.  Mr.  E.  W.  Weaver's  and  Dr.  Paul  Abelson's 

Work 75 

6.  The  Guidance  Work  of  the  Edinburgh  (Scot- 

land) School  Board 76 

7.  Examples  of  Its  Literature 77 

8.  Re-Action  on  Work  and  School 84 

THE  VOCATIONAL  COUNSELOR 

1.  The  First  Steps 87 

2.  The  New  Profession 87 

3.  Local  Cooperation 88 

122 


OUTLINE 

4.  Preliminary  Investigations 89 

5.  Differences  in  Aims 89 

6.  The  Vocational  Director 90 

7.  Beginnings  in  Counseling —  Economic  Founda- 

tions        92 

8.  The  Use  of  Psychological  Tests 94 

9.  Knowledge  of  Vocational  Resources     ....  94 

10.  The  Counselor's  Duty 96 

11.  Vocational  Literature 96 

12.  A  German  Example 97 

13.  Training  in  the  School  for  Counselors  ....  98 

14.  The  Counselor  in  the  School 98 

15.  Unpaid  Assistants 98 

16.  Future  of  the  Vocation  Bureau 98 

17.  The  Question  of  Placing  in  Employment.     .    .  99 

SOME  CAUTIONS  IN  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

1.  Guidance  for  Revenue loi 

2.  At  What  Age  Shall  Children  be  Advised  ?    .     .  101 

3.  Professor  Hanus  on  Vocational  Training  .    .    .102 

4.  Vocational  Self-Decision 103 

5.  The  Personal  Touch 103 

6.  Short  Cuts  to  Jobs 104 

7.  Prevention  not  Palliation 105 

8.  The  Abnormal  Types 105 

9.  Sane  Conservatism 106 

10.  The  Applicant's  Responsibility 107 

11.  Summary  of  the  Dangers 107 

SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC  GAINS  THROUGH 
VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE 

1.  Evolution  of  the  Vocations 109 

2.  Vocational  Idealism  — An  Illustration      .    .    .  in 

123 


OUTLINE 

3.  Interdependence  of  the  Vocations 112 

4.  Work  as  Continued  Education 114 

5.  Social  Aims  of  the  Vocations 115 

6.  Conclusion     .*,* 116 


RIVERSIDE  EDUCATIONAL 
MONOGRAPHS 


ANDREBS:  The  Teaching  of  Hygiene  in  the  Grades. 
ATWOOD:  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  the  Kindergarten. 
BAILEY:  Art  Education. 
BETTS:  New  Ideals  in  Rural  Schools. 
BETTS:  The  Recitation. 

BLOOMFIELD:  The  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth. 
CABOT:  Volunteer  Help  to  the  Schools. 
COLE:  Industrial  Education  in  the  Elementary  School. 
COOLEY:  Language  Teaching  in  the  Grades. 
COOLIDGE:  America's  Need  for  Education. 
CUBBERLEY:  Changing  Conceptions  of  Education. 
CUBBERLEY:  Improvement  of  Rural  Schools. 
DEWEY:  Interest  and  Effort  in  Education. 
DEWEY:  Moral  Principles  in  Education. 
DOOLEY:  The  Education  of  the  Ne'er-Do-Well. 
DOUGHERTY:  How  to  Teach  Phonics. 
EARHART:  Teaching  Children  to  Study. 
ELIOT:  Education  for  Efficiency. 

ELIOT:  The  Tendency  to  the  Concrete  and  Practical  in  Modern  Edu- 
cation. 

EMERSON:  Education. 

EVANS:  The  Teaching  of  High  School  Mathematics. 
FAIRCHILD:  The  Teaching  of  Poetry  in  the  High  School. 
FISKE:  The  Meaning  of  Infancy. 
FREEMAN:  The  Teaching  of  Handwriting. 
GATES:  Management  of  Smaller  Schools. 
HALIBURTON  and  SMITH:  Teaching  Poetry  in  the  Grades. 
HARTWELL:  The  Teaching  of  History. 
HAWLEY:  Teaching  English  in  Junior  High  Schools. 
HAYNES:  Economics  in  the  Secondary  School. 
HILL:  The  Teaching  of  Civics. 
HINES:  Measuring  Intelligence.  IOVEB) 


:  The  Teacher  as  Artist. 
HYDE:  The  Teacher's  Philosophy  In  and  Out  of  School. 
JENKINS:  Reading  in  the  Primary  Grades. 
JUDD:  The  Evolution  of  a  Democratic  School  System. 
KENDALL  and  STRYKER:  History  in  the  Elementary  School. 
KILPATRICK:  The  Montessori  System  Examined. 
Koos:  The  High-School  Principal. 
LEONARD:  English  Composition  as  a  Social  Problem. 
LEWIS:  Democracy's  High  School. 
LOSH  and  WEEKS:  Primary  Number  Projects. 
MAXWELL:  The  Observation  of  Teaching. 
MAXWELL:  The  Selection  of  Textbooks. 
MEREDITH:  The  Educational  Bearings  of  Modern  Psychology. 
MILLER  and  CHARLES:  Publicity  and  the  Public  School. 
PALMER:  Ethical  and  Moral  Instruction  in  Schools. 
PALMER:  The  Ideal  Teacher. 
PALMER:  Self-Cultivation  in  English. 
PALMER:  Trades  and  Professions. 
PERRY:  The  Status  of  the  Teacher. 
PROSBER:  The  Teacher  and  Old  Age. 
RUEDIGER:  Vitalized  Teaching. 
RUSSELL:  Economy  in  Secondary  Education. 
SHARP:  Teaching  English  in  High  Schools. 
SMITH:  Establishing  Industrial  Schools. 
SNEDDEN:  The  Problem  of  Vocational  Education. 
STOCKTON:  Project  Work  in  Education. 
STRATTON:  Developing  Mental  Power. 
SUZZALLO:  The  Teaching  of  Primary  Arithmetic. 
SUZZALLO:  The  Teaching  of  Spelling. 

SWIFT:  Speech  Defects  in  School  Children  and  How  to  Treat  Them. 
TERM  AN:  The  Teacher's  Health. 
THORNDIKE:  Individuality. 
TROW:  Scientific  Method  in  Education. 
TUELL:  The  Study  of  Nations. 
WEEKS:  The  People's  School. 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

2601b 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


DEC  20    ^, 

HAH  4  1  10Q? 

"<JG    6    1CH7 

MAR  11  wo' 

MAY  24    1948 

• 

2fiJan5?eF 

-       I2Janv52t" 

20^w'64SWl 

•  vtC  D  LD 

DEC  IS  '64-8  AM 

• 

w*m  **^ 

IN  "STAC            9 

MAR&3EiV£b  dv 

St£  1  v  1380 

r.JH^'Mt  AYir^M  -Fv&aV 

LD  21-100m-12,'43  (8796s) 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


8000188233 


Ml 12276 

.  HF;5"38>1 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


